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IMPORTANT! If you ask yourself that way too often please take advantage of this free open blind jury. Watch the jurors for this show in action. Spend time, spend money to be there, it is worth it if you are serious about being successful in the art fair business.

You are invited to attend the blind jury process
January 26 & 27
Columbus, OH
presented by the Columbus Arts Festival
The Westin Columbus, 310 High St.

Please contact Sean Kessler,
Festival Director, at 614-221-8625 or skessler@gcac.org
for the weekend's schedule or to RSVP to attend the jury

New to the business? Tired of getting rejected? What images should I use for my application? What are the jurors looking for?

2 chances to find the answers: 

1. January 20, Saint Louis, MO

ZAPP and the Saint Louis Art Fair are offering artists an opportunity to have their images critiqued through a Mock Jury workshop. If you are interested in this option (your work part of the critique) the deadline to submit was January 2. However this workshop is open to anyone that would like to attend and learn. 

What we'll cover: 

•  Learn how to make your application more competitive.
•  Looking for help to improve your jury submissions?
•  See how your images look enlarged and projected on a screen. 
•  Are you testing the waters with a new body of work?  This is a great way to get some feedback. 

Here’s how it works:

• The Mock Jury will take place on Saturday, January 20, 2018 at Grey Eagle Distributors - 2340 Millpark Drive, Maryland Heights, MO 63043.
• We will begin promptly at 9am.
• Jurors will speak openly about submitted artist images.
• Everyone is welcome to join us in person to experience the mock jury. 

For more details: Laura Miller, lmiller@saintlouisartfair.com, phone: 314.863.0278

2. February 10 & 11, Columbus, OH

The Columbus Arts Festival jury will choose the Festival artists at a two-day public meeting in February at the Westin Columbus located at 310 S High St, Columbus, OH 43215. Jury panelists will review more than 1,000 artist applications from across the country to determine the approximately 300 who will be invited to participate in the 2018 Columbus Arts Festival.

Artists will be chosen in the following categories:  2D Mixed Media, 3D Mixed Media, Ceramics, Digital Art, Drawing & Pastels, Fiber, Glass, Jewelry, Leather, Metal, Painting, Photography, Printmaking & Graphics, Sculpture, Wood, and Emerging Artists. A jury panel selected by the GCAC staff conducts a blind jury process, where jurors review the artists’ images and technical statements without seeing any personal information. The top scores, allowing for a balanced show across mediums, are invited to participate in the Festival.

2018 Columbus Arts Festival Jurors

April Sunami (Painting); Eva Kwong (Ceramics); Tyler Cann (Associate Curator, Columbus Museum of Art); David Butler (Painting); Sherrie Hawk (Gallery Owner)

2018 Columbus Arts Festival Jury

Westin Columbus located at 310 S High St, Columbus, OH 43215
February 10-11, 2018 8:30a-5pm

Feel free to Contact Festival Director Sean Kessler at 614-221-8625 with any questions.

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:

• 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.