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So June 30th was notification day for the Bethesda Row Arts Festival. I was rejected yet again.

The application fee/jury fee/seed money generator was $40.00.

The whole application/jury process was done through ZAPP.

I have applied several years in a row.

I have been at the show once in an end of the row booth show position which functioned more as an exit rather than an entrance.

Due to location, my booth was in shadow until 5 PM approx., both days of the show. My sales from the show all came once the sun shone on my booth. I believe I would have made money on the show if I had either had a lighting system or had a better booth position relative to the sunshine.

Despite the negative experiences of my first exhibit, I believe the show has potential in my exhibit schedule.

So here's what I got from the ZAPP system on June 30th... My emphasis is in bold and/or underlined in the quote:

"Dear Artist,

It is with much regret that I must inform you that the jury has not accepted your application for this year’s Bethesda Row Arts Festival. The jurors assigned each applicant a numerical score based on creativity, originality, technique, design and presentation. The applicants receiving the highest scores in their category were invited to exhibit. Many artists who receive this notification are curious as to why they did not obtain a higher score. We do not request the jurors to explain or record the reasoning behind their decisions. Consequently, we can offer no insight on the juror’s scores. 

In the past sixteen years, the panel of jurors has never been comprised of the same three people. This gives the Bethesda Row Arts Festival an opportunity to change from year to year. The panel of jurors this year included Rebecca Cross - DC Gallery owner, Jane Milosch - Director the Smithsonian's Provenance Research Initiative, Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture and Susan Goldman - a working artist in print/graphics and Professor at the George Mason University School of Art and Design. The show received a record number of applications this year, making the process more competitive across all categories.

We thank you for applying.  We use a new jury every year, so we do encourage you to apply again next year. 

Sincerely,

Robin Markowitz
Festival Director


Contact Info:
   Bethesda Row Arts Festival 2013
   14803 Southlawn Lane Suite L-N Rockville, MD 20850
   info@bethesdarowarts.org
   301-637-5684"

So, they made money on the jury process due to the huge number of entries.....

They do collect and obviously retain numerical scores for categories that they use to jury entries, or they would not be able to notify the entrants who juried into the show...

So, I wrote Robin Markowitz back requesting my scores...Here it comes

"From: Mark V Turner [markvturner@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 30, 2013 8:58 PM
To: Robin Markowitz
Subject: Scores please

Hello, having recently receive my notification that my entry failed to score sufficiently high to be admitted to this years Bethesda Row event, I would like to request my scores for each category and my composite score. I would also appreciate knowing what the scoring cut-off for the composite score in acrylic painting was in order to perhaps understand what the judges were looking at.

Being a multi-award-winning artist, I am constantly seeking to improve my entries and widen my audience

Thanks,

Mark V Turner
markvturner@yahoo.com"

And, here's the all too familiar reply... except, it's misleading and doesn't say what the ZAPP notifications says. Again bold and underlined are by me:

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"Hi Mark,

We do not release scores.  There are no comments or feedback from the jury.  You should know this was a record breaking year for artists applying to the show.  In the Oil/Acrylic category we had 198 applicants for 22 spaces.  This was a numbers game and the jury changes each year.

Your work is obviously amazing and we are certainly hope that you will consider the show for the future.  The best and most frustrating part of this show is that there is significant artist turnover each year because the jury changes and we have an exceptional group of artists each year that apply to the show - like yourself.

Best Regards
Robin"

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So, because I am a glutton for punishment and hate the lack of transparency which is involved in the process, I wrote back:

"

Many artists who participate in fine art exhibitions feel that the jury fee pays for more than just an accept/reject letter after the jury makes its' decisions. This consensus has developed after analysis of jurying costs and subsequent potential revenues realized in the jury process.