| Jury Slides that Never Made It to the Jury |
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
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As artists, we scurry from thing to thing, trying to keep up with deadlines, inventory, sales and shows. Sending in slides for jurying is one more tedious task. This year, I ran into something totally unexpected, and it has impacted my business year in a way I never thought possible. I thought it was important to pass along my experience with the hope that I can help someone else avoid what I am going through.
United Parcel Service lost my slides for the American Craft Council (ACC) jury. For the first time, the jury scores applied to all the ACC shows for the entire year. Last year, these shows accounted for one-fourth of my gross income.
I had mailed my slides a few weeks early. When I didn't receive my jury results, I called the ACC office and was told that they had never arrived. A quick check of my package tracking number at www.ups.com showed the trail to end at a UPS location in northern New Jersey. There was no scan after that location. The slides simply disappeared.
For some reason, that tracking label had given me a false sense of security. I assumed that if I could prove they were sent, all else would fall into place. What I hadn't fully realized was that once the jury convenes and gives its results, there is absolutely no recourse. The ACC is bound by jury results. I respect this, having served on a number of juries. There is, unfortunately and understandably, no recourse for extraneous circumstances or hardship.
Bottom line, no matter how you send jury slides, and no matter what carrier or method you choose, you have to have a way to confirm that your package has arrived at the right place and before the deadline. Checking with UPS.com a week after I shipped the slides would have solved the problem. That is what I failed to do.
According to the ACC, the majority of artists' applications arrive by regular mail with no means of verifying their arrival. Some artists enclose self-addressed, stamped postcards to confirm the arrival of their slides. If this method is used, the application must arrive well ahead of time to allow the card to be sent back. If a promoter is inundated with applications, they may not be able to open them all in time to return a postcard by the deadline date. In addition, an artist must make a note to check if the postcard is returned. Ultimately, the Internet now seems to offer the best way to double-check your delivery service.
Certainly, there is no assurance for any of us that we will get into the shows we apply to, since jury results vary from year to year. But, what a terrible waste of time, money and effort to not even be in the running. I will do more shows this year to make up for the ones I have lost. I will survive, but it will be a tougher year for me.
Good luck, and I hope that your slides that get there get juried well!
Peggy Fasullo
Earlysville, Virginia
Copyright© 2001
APRIL 2001: TABLE OF CONTENTS