Although I certainly wanted to be accepted into the Upper Arlington Arts Festival -- a show in a wealthy suburb of Columbus OH that my customers say I HAVE to start doing -- the sting almost went away when I read the line in the rejection email that said juror comments were available upon request.
What??? They'll actually share the jury notes and we don't even have to beg?
Thinking this was too good to be true, I jumped on the offer right away and shot back a request for comments. And today, about a week later, the blessed news arrived.
First there was a brief description of the jury composition, the judging process and the scoring mechanism. Then my score on a 7-point scale. Then the median score in my category. Finally, the jurors' verbatim comments.
Wow. Really impressive. More detail than I've ever received. A little confusing because all the jurors' comments were quite positive, yet I didn't even make the wait list. The other applicants must have been really good, and I say good for them.
I feel so positive about this show's transparency and respectful behavior that I will happily donate my jury fee again next year. I'm even feeling inspired to pull out the sketchpad and try to up my game with some new and improved work in the hopes of improving my score next year.
So if you'll be in the Midwest over Labor Day weekend in 2015, give this show a try. You'll find them on Zapp.
