The email dialogue below details an exchange with the Des Moines art festival yesterday. It was really refreshing to get detailed info from a show. Heck, I don't even care if they look at my slides at this point; its just great to get such detailed information from a show.
This contrasts, markedly with the note I got from the Winter Park Spring show earlier this week. It really was a stock rejection note, complete with instructions on how to archive my zapplication, and a note of encouragement to apply again next year. There was no information on how many applications they received or how many photographers applied. Nothing useful, really. I mean, it was courteous ...
What do y'all think? I wish every show would send detaild medium-specific information regarding applications. Heck, Zapp ought to have a "Show Jury Report" button in it. A show could elect to turn it on or not. I personally would not apply to shows that turned it off.
- Robert Green
Photographer
Winter Park, FL
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Green [mailto:rrgwpk@cfl.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 1:28 PM
To: 'Stephen King'
Subject: RE: Des Moines Arts Festival
Thank you for your note Mr. King. I have probably applied to 150 in the last 4 or 5 years. Your communication, below, is the most informative that I have ever received from a show during or after a jury process. Keep up the good work!
Robert Green
Winter Park FL
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen King [mailto:sking@downtowndesmoines.com]
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 12:58 PM
Subject: Des Moines Arts Festival
Importance: High
Thank you for applying to the 2012 Des Moines Arts Festival. This email communication is intended to share information about what happens from here.
*We are currently working with Zapp to prepare the submitted images for the projection jury
*Our jury is Nov. 16-18 in Des Moines.
*The entire process will be streamed online as we have done the past three years. Detailed information about this will be emailed the week of the jury.
*We start our jury on the evening of Wed. Nov. 16 at 6:30 p.m. with a screening of every application from start to finish. Mediums are shone in random order.
This screening is open to you. If you would like to attend, please join us starting at 6 p.m. for light hors d’oeuvres and beverages (adult and otherwise). The screening takes place in the Arthur Davis Conference Center located at 700 Locust Street on the street level – look for the signs.
*If you have never seen your images projected for the jury, this is an excellent opportunity.
*Scoring will begin on Thursday morning and continue into Friday until all artists have been scored. After all artists have been scored we will stop the stream.
Our goal as stated in the application is to send communications with jury results no later than Dec. 2, 2011. We will also post on our web site.
Application Results –
· 1,093 applications received (1,097 in 2011)
· 1,085 applications approved for jurying
· 1,054 applicants were professional artists (1,061 in 2011)
· 39 applicants are Emerging Iowa Artists (36 in 2010)
· Applications were received from artists in 48 states and two countries
· 174 spaces will be available through the jury process. The balance of 11 are reserved for returning award winners.
· 1,085 applications represents 6,510 images
· Over 850 artists will be eliminated
Applicants/Invited by category:
2-D Mixed Media, 104
3-D Mixed Media, 54
Ceramics, 86
Computer Generated, 25
Drawing/Pastels, 22
EIA, 39
Fiber, 70
Glass, 58
Graphics/Printmaking, 35
Jewelry, 184
Metalworks, 45
Painting, 136
Photography, 127
Sculpture, 55
Wood, 45
Our Jury –
David Bryce was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, and subsequently completed his MFA at the Queens College of the City University of New York. He has been a featured artist in numerous galleries and exhibitions, including the Brooklyn Museum Community Gallery, Nassau County Museum of Fine Arts, the New York Museum, and the Museum of Art (Munson-Williams Proctor Institute). He is currently living in the Berkshires in Massachusetts with his wife and their two children.
Laura Burkhalter has been on the Des Moines Art Center's curatorial staff since 1999, serving as Curatorial Assistant till 2004, Assistant Curator from 2004-2009, and Associate Curator since then. Her exhibitions include Meet the New You, World Histories, Surface Value, and various incarnations of Iowa Artists. Burkhalter has also served as the Art Center's Docent Educator since 2005. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1997 with a B.A. in English and Art History, and is a native of Des Moines.
Chris Dahlquist learned to use a camera and the darkroom as she was learning to ride a bicycle and write in cursive. She has held a camera in her hands ever since. Chris spent the early part of her career in commercial photography, film, and teaching kids photo basics. Since 1998 she has participated in top national juried art festivals from Miami to Seattle. Chris’ photographic mixed media has won many awards, is in hundreds of private collections, and is in many corporate & municipal collections, including Winter Park, Florida, Pacific University, H&R Block and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Born in Pendleton, Oregon, in 1952, Jerry Allen Gilmore earned a BFA in fiber and painting, a minor in both art history and creative writing/poetry from Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, and an MFA in painting and drawing from Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. Over the past thirty years, Gilmore has built a unique and impressive career as both an artist and arts administrator including a combined fourteen years in Director and Curatorial practice at MARS Art-space, Phoenix, Arizona, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, Fort Collins, Colorado, the CU Art Galleries, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, and most recently, Visual Arts Director / Curator at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada, Colorado. Upon relocation to Saint Paul, Minnesota, Gilmore has continued his curatorial projects, artist portfolio reviews, jurying for both regional and national art institutions and continually discovering his own personal artwork and writings.
Gilmore has exhibited in New York, San Francisco, New Zealand, Peru, and Mexico. His work also appears in the collections of the Nordstrom Corporation, the Tucson Museum of Art, the Arizona State University Art Museum, the Denver Art Museum and among numerous private collections throughout the U.S. Gilmore’s intimate miniatures and sweeping, large scale drawings are deceptively personal as he adopts a cast of animated characters and symbols to relate his own story, this work playfully addresses the often awkward issues of stereotypes, self identity, sexuality and religion with a keen sense of humor.
Peter Goché is an installation artist based in Ames, Iowa. He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design at Iowa State University. Goché holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from Iowa State University. He taught in the Department of Art at Drake University before joining the faculty at the Iowa State University, where he coordinates and teaches design studios exploring architecture in relation to culture, landscapes and fabrication. For the last decade Goché has produced research assemblies specific to the ritualized landscape of Iowa. He is co-investigator/author of Guidelines for Spatial Regeneration in Iowa funded by the 2007 AIA Board of Knowledge Committee. Goché has presented his design-work and scholarship at many conferences and cultural institutions in North America.
If you have any question regarding the process, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Best Regards,
Stephen King, CFEE
Executive Director, Des Moines Arts Festival®700 Locust Street, Ste. 100
Des Moines, IA 50309
515-286-4927
fax 515-286-4942
Comments
As I understand it, Robert, the individual shows decide how to use ZAPP's software, which options they will use for their applications. Different choices made by each show and artists then deal with the events' choices. You, as an individual, can suggest to ZAPP ideas that you think will benefit artists, but ZAPP's clients are the shows, not you.
The Des Moines show has an on-line access to the jury session tomorrow. I plan to view it that way from FL.
I didn't mean to put so much focus on the Des Moines show in this blog. I was really hoping to stir some interest among artists in demanding more information from ALL the shows we apply to. For the $30 to $50 we spend applying to shows, it seems like the least they should do is provide us some more detailed, medium-specific feedback. What do you think of the idea of a "Show Jury Report" button in Zapp? Anyone know how you request software enhancements from Zapp?
shoot. I forgot to add the part where I totally agree with the information policy of the DesMoines Art Festival--they do a great job. And if you get a chance, drive to DesMoines for the open jury, it's worth it.
KUDOS!!
Wow, they sound so organised and willing to share - fantastic!
Stephen King is a true professional . He works on this show consumately and the results speak for themselves . Prior to the letter that was referred to in other comments above, I had written to him about the makeup of the jurists . I was interested to know if the jurists were slanted towards any specific genre of art or represented all genres of art . He sent me back a detailed email of the jurists backgrounds and encouraged me to apply . Not that I will be selected . Ha! I have learned, as many other artist's have, that it does no good to apply to venues where the jurists are biased towards contemporary or abstract genres rather than other forms of art . I explained to Stephen that the public likes to view all kinds of art . He agreed ! So, it is no surprise to me that the Des Moines Art Festival is ranked so highly . It takes a lot of hard work and Mr. King does it regularly with the help of his team . Other shows should try and match or exceed his vision of how to run art shows . It would help all of us artists across America . I hope I am lucky enough to be selected .
The best part is if a large show can be organized enough, and find the time and resources to provide this info then surely a smaller show should be able to do the same right?
I also received the same email and was impressed of all the details. I too wish others would do the same.
I agree! I got the same email and spent several minutes poring over the details. Des Moines doesn't just set the bar high, but sets it where it should be for all shows.
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