The panel at the Arts Festival conference "The Verdict is in: Best Jury Practices" had on its panel Christine Berthiaume from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Tara Brickell from the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Stephen King of the Des Moines Arts Festival and Nancy Musser who consults with art fairs on jury practices for Zapp, was well worth the time.
The candidness of the panel's remarks was refreshing and stripped away any concept of "other." We are on the same team, artists and art show directors. We all want the same thing: an excellent art festival.
Some of my notes:
- 35-40% of applicants come in in the last two days. Makes it difficult to review to make sure everything is in order. Maybe 80% the last week. Half in the last 24 hours.
- If you are waiting to hear from other shows — still get the application started so it will be ready as soon as you are free to make a decision. Do you want to do it quickly, or slowly so you’ve got everything done?
- Indoor booth/outdoor booth — — suggested that if you are applying to an indoor/outdoor your booth shot should reflect the show you are applying to.
- Suggestions for Artists who are doing all gallery shows, and so don’t have a booth shot: put together a display shot from what you have and set it up to replicate as closely as possible what you think your booth will look like at the show PLUS note (if there is a place for it) that you don't have a booth yet, new to the art fair business
- Make the shot look like an artists gallery, the booth shot keeping in mind what will be attractive to the viewer. E.g., don’t you send a booth shot that shows your work on the ground.
- As the rounds of the jury continue, it is for the jurors like “peeling away the onion”, down to the very best work.
- Don’t give the jury any reason to kick you out of the show.
How they choose jurors and run their jury:
- We network with other shows to find out who they have used that were good.
- Work to figure out how they cab balance it over all the disciplines
- Ask in the artist survey for suggestions.
- Look for peer jurors who have national experience.
- 25% first round; 25% second round; then discussion.
- Publish the name of the jurors ahead of time.
- "We spend more time jurying our show than we are open as an art festival," Cindy Lerick from St. Louis Art Fair
- Show award winners, invited artists. Review all images by category. Then score by category. Include peer jurors in the jurying images so they can see their work amidst their peers.
- Quota per category, no — Cherry Creek. Judge based on excellence of work.
- No categories - Des Moines - sorted by Zapp application ID#’s. Choosing a balanced show, put your work into a small category, leveling the playing field — not choosing a quota.
- We review entire show the night before with the jurors. Next day start scoring. First round 1-7, no 4’s. Next round show of hands.
- Best non-art entry was images of goats and the art was goat cheese - Tara Brickell from Cherry Creek
A couple of important tips (yes, you've heard them before, but there is a reason for that):
- Invest in professional images.
- Attend a jury, if at all possible.
Comments
Really good comments, Cindy. We all can support one another. You know that customer who bought from you at the last couple of shows is probably not going to buy again right away. However, if you have an email list, do mailings to the customers to bring them to the show AND your neighbor does also then perhaps your customer becomes theirs and vice versa. People who attend these events may be doing some tire kicking but the exhibitor who is prepared to stand out gets a good chance to be the "chosen one." Nels Johnson said in a comment on Great Gulfcoast Art Festival that he had a really good show and he believes it is "because I had new work." Continually improving and working our butts off eventually gets you to the goal: not getting rich, but getting through life in a meaningful way.
Barry wrote ....
Most shows would rather sell beer, t-shirts, and gate fees instead of having a top quality show.
Oh, tell me about it! Their profit margin on these things (beer and t-shirts) must be amazing! Maybe we could learn from them. Sometimes it's like the art part is an afterthought. "Oh, we'll have a beer fest and throw in some art/craft for entertainment purposes. It is really discouraging when we stop and think about this. There is a show in the next town over that has it all ... arts, crafts, a car show, a duck parade, a 5K run, and multiple band stages. [When I read all that they do, it sounds chaotic along with buck shot .... trying to please everyone but actually no one ends up pleased.] I did this show for a couple of years and at first was excited about it. We were the 2nd booth from one of the corners where a band stand was set up. The music was not bad, mostly golden oldies and not too loud. We could still talk with the music going on. Then after lunch it changed to and the guy running the board cranked up the volume. No ability to truly converse with customers was the effect. Our sales were doing average till about 2:00 PM. Then the crowd switched. It went from shoppers to young adults (read college aged) people roaming the streets carrying their bottled beer. Yes, it is legal to do that in the show. Buying died a quickly ugly death. I gave the show a 2nd chance to see if it would be different. My mistake was not requesting a different spot. It was the same the 2nd time and we vowed that day that we would not return.
About the fact that 80%+ artists apply at the last minute: Nobody asks the question why is it this way? My feeling is that most artists are struggling to even pay the app fees, let alone the booth fees. If we were doing well, that money would come in sooner. I believe there is only a small percentage of artists are doing really well. The rest of us are embarrassed to admit this.
I agree 100%. I believe no one is really getting rich. Some are doing better than others but most are trying to scratch out a living. I believe the reason no one talks about this is pride, embarrassment, shame, and deep down we all believe everyone else is making money hand over fist. If we all got real we would learn we are not alone. We could encourage each other and lift each other up.
Sometimes I think we don't promote each other because we are afraid that is a buyer buys from another artist then we are losing a sale. Been there done that. But not everyone is our target market. If we could build real relationships with others we could promote others while promoting our own work. I am trying to do this, but only with people I have actually met, like as a person, like their work, and respect their work ethic. They do not do the same thing I do. Of the ones I've mentioned on Facebook more than once, one is a canvas artist using the impasta style, one sews top shelf children's clothing, another makes jewelry and rosaries. I know these ladies love what they do, want their customers to have a good experience and do quality work. If we start building a community of artists and crafters where we build real relationships, we can begin to have honest discussions. I don't believe we have to give hard numbers but could reduce it to percentages. Percentages work in any craft or art ... My booth fees are up by 5% overall compared to last year or my sales are down from last year by 10%. This can translate to open communication with telling exactly how much we are making or losing.
Funny, Connie!! That was my point. We both would make great judges and there are many more qualified to go around. No need to use the same judges at all the good shows. Judges will pick a show based on their style and taste. When I get in to let's say Cherry Creek, I can count on certain other great traditional, meaning wheel throwers as opposed to hand made sculptural, potters being at the same shows. I wouldn't mind being the only one.
I don't agree that all shows are trying to meet the highest standard. If that was the case there would be more of them. I'm not going to mention any of them, but, I believe some shows inadvertently do all they can to ruin their show. Usually it's the board of directors as opposed to the actual show director.
Yes, I know this was the ZAPP conference panel.
As you probably know, Barry, I didn't pick these people to speak on this topic, they were the presenters picked by Westaf, or Zapp, as we call it. Who better to teach the others how to run a jury? Who has these standards? We all want to be in the best shows and shows (let's say 90% of them) want to meet these standards.
I agree that there are more than enough good judges to go around. You were on a jury I ran once and did do an excellent job. Heck, how about me? Hardly ever asked. Haven't I been around. Don't you answer that, it was rhetorical.
On the other hand, there is some really good info here including a couple of gems. The competition for these spaces are so great that every little bit of knowledge helps.
I have a really bad habit of not proofreading what I wrote, so, if my spelling is wrong or my wording it is because of this. There is no way to edit my comments, so, they stand as is even though they may come out disjointed.
First of all, you picked the directors from the best shows who want the best artists. They also want extremely qualified jurors. It's part of the reason why these are the most successful shows. Sadly, I think they are the exception and not the rule. Personally, there are not enough of these top shows for all the really good artists. I want more shows to raise their standards of jurying, etc. to the level of these shows because they attract the most serious buyers. These are the shows I sell well at. 90%+ of all shows do not adhere to these standards. I only get into one or two a year if I am lucky. The same is the case with most of the great art fair artists. Some really good artitsts can't get into any of the top shows. Therefore, it is hard to do really well every year. For me, and for most artists out there, it is almost impossible to reach my art fair customers. Most shows would rather sell beer, t-shirts, and gate fees instead of having a top quality show.
About the fact that 80%+ artists apply at the last minute: Nobody asks the question why is it this way? My feeling is that most artists are struggling to even pay the app fees, let alone the booth fees. If we were doing well, that money would come in sooner. I believe there is only a small percentage of artists are doing really well. The rest of us are embarrassed to admit this. I came to this conclusion 15 years ago when I was at the pre-show Ann Arbor party and recognized hardly anyone. Most of the artists from the 80's and 90's had dropped out because they couldn't make an adequate living. That hasn't changed. Most of the artists I know have only been around for less than 10 years. Nobody every addresses this, including the shows themselves.
In addition to this panel, I would like to see these directors give workshops to other directors to teach them what to do, how to operate in the black.
I think there should be a rule that nobody can judge more than a couple of shows every year and every show has to change judges from year to year. That way the best shows will have a different make up from year to year and different artists in any one year. There are many more qualified judges than there are shows to judge. Most directors don't realize this. Nobody would every ask me to judge and I am more than qualified. I've done art fairs for 30+ years, have a college education, had a gallery for over 10 years, bought and sold at the trade shows and even spent my youth riding my bike once a week to the Habitat Gallery when glass started to boom.
This is a lot of great info and is important for all of us to let soak in to and saturate into our brains for constantly striving to improve our jury chances. I have always felt that getting a very good booth shot that really satisfies me is a much harder accomplishment that creating new artwork. I want my creations to always improve and show my creative growth as much as I want a booth that shows my creativeness in its design.