noticed dramatic changes in the past few years. What
used to work with jurors may not work effectively now.
slides and how to consistently get into better shows. I
noticed recently the old rules don't always work, and some
artists have to rethink the way they choose and arrange
their slides. One individual called me stating she has been
doing shows for 20 years and had an 80 percent accep-
tance rate. I could hear the devastation in her voice when
she reported she had been rejected recently from the last
18 of 20 shows to which she applied.
major contributing factors are digital photography and jury
services such as Zapplication and Juried Art Services. As a
result, you may need to change how you design your work
for your slides, as well as how you arrange or group your
work when you submit them to the jury.
sible for an artist to photograph their own slides and
achieve acceptable results, as long as they're willing to
invest in equipment and learn how to use it. I know many
artists who shoot their work and have favorable results
these are also individuals who spend a lot of time to
achieve acceptable photos. Serious artists taking their own
photos and getting consistent acceptances was not often
the rule prior to the digital era. Don't get me wrong, I still
advise artists to have their work professionally shot by an
expert! That said, bad photography costs just as much as
good photography in most cases. Not all photographers
portfolio to make sure it contains slides of the quality
you are seeking and the kind of work you create before
you hire them.
artists. Services like Zapplication and Juried Art Services
have not only fundamentally changed the application
process, but also the duration and manner in which
jurors look at your slides.
certain things you need to know when applying to a show
in 2007 and into the future that were not necessarily issues
in the past.
because the process is virtually effortless. All you have to do
to apply to ten shows, rather than one, is to check ten
boxes and pay for the application fees. In the past it was
one application per show, and this process represented
more work for the artist--work that was of the "left-brain"
type many artists do not tend to enjoy. As a result, a lot of
application deadlines went by and the artist never got it
together to get the application in the mail on time.
in applications--as much as 25 to 40 percent. This means
in general the jury is going to be looking at more slides
and may suffer a more profound burnout as they look at
your slides. After interviewing individuals at Zapplication
and Juried Art Services, I found that though the artist
application process to these services is standardized, slide-
viewing by the jury is not. Some shows are juried by look-
ing at projected images, others are looking at computer
monitors, while other shows might be juried remotely. In
some cases the slides are timed and can only be seen for a
certain time period, and others are reviewed for as long as
the jury deems necessary. Some applications are discussed
between the jurors and others are juried anonymously.
the Process