the Crafts Report: The Right Stuff

We interviewed 12 jurors from some of the country’s hottest craft shows and got the verdict on these, and other issues, to help you find out if you have what it takes.

Barbara Bushey — Juror, fiber, Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, 2002; Fiber artist and visiting assistant professor of art, Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Mich.

TCR: Usually, a juror’s biggest piece of advice to show applicants is to get the best slides of their work that they can afford. What makes for a great set of slides?

BB: A good set of slides shows both the range of your work, and that you have a particular voice, or point of view. Also, I tend to take work a bit more seriously if it’s all photographed on the same background. It seems more professional that way.

We want to really see the work, so it must nearly fill the frame. There should be no extraneous stuff in the photo — not your dog … not any weird patterned background that hides your work. They must be clear — slightly out of focus just won’t do.

Aaron Mascai — Juror, American Craft Exposition, 2002; Jeweler

TCR: I’ve often heard artists agonize over whether they should present a unified body of work or show diverse pieces in order to demonstrate their full range. Would you recommend one option over the other?

AM: A uniform grouping of slides has to have a balance — slides of too similar forms, objects, techniques and color fields fall short of the mark. Illustrating one’s strengths comes across best if every image holds its own and also fits in with the visual flow of the presentation. If a person has a diverse body of work to present, there must be continuity from one slide to the next. This is extremely difficult if the background, scale, shadows, focus or technical achievement varies dramatically from one slide to the next.

Jill Ault — Jury Manager, Ann Arbor Street Art Fair

TCR: Ann Arbor Street Art Fair has a unique jurying system. What are the advantages and disadvantages?

JA: Once an artist is accepted and shows at the fair, the work is juried live (on the street), instead of by photograph. Some work is not adequately represented by slides and can get a better showing in the booth. Of course, sometimes slides disguise craftsmanship problems, exposed when we see the actual work.

TCR: In addition to having great slides, what else would you tell applicants they need to do?

JA: Slide descriptions are worth doing carefully. Follow the “rules,” even if a variation will work better for you. If you’re asked for 20 words describing your work, give us 20 words, not two pages. Tell the jurors about materials or techniques not readily apparent in your slides.

Tom Venner — Advisor and juror, Ann Arbor Street Art Fair; Ceramist and Art Department Head, Eastern Michigan University

TCR: What are the advantages to Ann Arbor’s unique system of jurying and “tenure,” in which some folks can count on coming back without submitting slides in some years, but in which everyone must apply every couple of years? Do those who are invited back tend to rest on their laurels?

TV: I think being able to return for a set period of time is good for the artist and good for the fair. The artist gets a chance to build a reputation and a market. Often, customers watch an artist for a year or two before buying. Good artists evolve and I don’t believe that a system that allows artists to return causes them to stagnate. On the contrary, they will need to show new, somewhat different work each time they return in order to keep customers interested.

Bruce W. Pepich — Juror, Smithsonian Craft Show, 2002; Juror, St. Louis Art Fair, 2002; Executive Director of Collections, The Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, Wis.

TCR: This year, the Smithsonian Craft Show scanned slides with their descriptions, and allowed jurors to score them from individual computer monitors. How did you like “digital jurying?”

BP: I really liked it. Each of us was able to proceed at our own speed. I could pop up a slide full-size on the screen and read its dimensions and description. If there was an artist whose work I knew, I could judge it and move on. So, instead of spending five seconds on each person, I could spend three seconds on people whose work I knew, and 10 seconds on other
people.

TCR: Some artists have objected to digitizing slides on the grounds that texture and depth seem to be lost when they go digital. Did you notice a difference?

BP: Slides may be a little crisper, but since you can blow up each image, it may be an even exchange.

TCR: What do you look for in a set of slides?

BP: I’m looking for something refreshing, surprising — people who seem to have an idea to express … they aren’t just cranking something out … people with a new take on common vernaculars.

Beth Ann Gerstein — Juror, Smithsonian Craft Show, 2002; Past juror, American Craft Council Baltimore Craft Fair; Past Juror, Crafts at the Castle, 1999; Executive Director, The Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Mass.

TCR: For its first year, CRAFTBOSTON (a new show hosted by The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston) had both invited exhibitors and those who were invited to submit slides. What were the advantages of the invitational/jurying process?

BAG: It gave the artistic director (Lloyd Herman) a lot of control over the visual direction of the show. It allowed the artists to recommend their favorite artists, some of which we might not have known about. It was a good way to kick off a [new] show.

TCR: Did you like the digitizing of the Smithsonian applications?

BAG: It was great! We really received much more information on the work by jurying this way, and I think we were able to make better decisions.

Because it allowed for automatic tallying of our scores, it allowed us to look at the artists that scored in the middle to reassess our decisions (not a possibility in a standard jury). We knew exactly what the show looked like at the end of the process. We selected the 120 artists and the wait list. If cost were no obstacle, I would recommend every show going in this direction for jurying.

Anthony Beverly — Juror, Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, 2002; Furniture maker and owner of Wooden Works, Stephentown, N.Y.

TCR: What’s the best advice you can give to artists sending out their applications?

AB: There’s no substitute for the experience of being a juror. If you haven’t sat on a jury, ask every show promoter you know if you can either be on a jury or at least sit in. The first thing you realize is how little time you have to look at a set of slides.

Lori Bacigalupi — Juror, American Craft Exposition, 2002; Past juror, American Craft Council; Owner of Kiss of the Wolf, norman, Okla.

TCR: What is your advice to applicants who are putting together a set of slides?

LB: All of the choices you make about representing your work are aesthetic, so your slides have to be just as good as your work. Because you have a relatively short period of time to view a body of work, it’s more important to get the basic information across.

TCR: Was there a particular application that [you found to be especially impressive]?

LB: There was a textile application. It was exquisitely woven fabric, very minimal, with a certain delicacy to it. You could see light through it, which gave a sense of its texture. The application was understated in a beautiful way: the colors, the composition. Everything that needed to be there was there and nothing else.

Gail Fredell — Juror, Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, 2002; Furniture maker

TCR: What was the biggest challenge to you as a juror?

GF: In the jury process, it’s a challenge to sit there for two days and look at 8,000 slides and keep it fresh. There’s an awful lot of derivative stuff out there. I was looking for people who were breaking new boundaries. Overall, I was disappointed in the work that we saw. I think there are a lot of artists out there doing great work who don’t view the Philadelphia show as a good venue for their work.

TCR: I wonder if the artists who apply to Philadelphia are reluctant to be too cutting-edge because of salability issues. Did you consider salability when you were jurying?

GF: I suppose you always have to balance the aesthetic with what will sell. I looked at it more from the point of view of the opportunity that the exhibition gives the public to see what people are doing in their studios. What I really appreciate is the effort of the museum to show people what’s out there. I look at it as an educational thing.

Linda Post — Founder, producer, and director of Paradise City Arts Festivals

TCR: What do you think is the biggest challenge for jurors of your shows?

LP: The most difficult part of jurying is that for a high-caliber show, most of the applications that we receive at Paradise City are really perfectly qualified for participation. Having to wait-list or reject a large number of extremely talented and professional artists is truly heartbreaking for all concerned.

Marsha Fleisher — Juror, Crafts at the Castle, 2001; Past Juror, American Craft Council, Fiber, 1999; Fiber artist and founder of Loominus Handwovens in Bearsville, N.Y.

TCR: What’s the biggest challenge facing a juror?

MF: The biggest challenge for me was seeing beyond my first impression — fine tuning my understanding of each set of slides and deciphering the level of expertise involved in each creation. Getting past my own concepts of what I like personally and seeing into areas of craft that I had never explored myself was a challenge. Also, being critical and detached from those artists I know — although knowing work personally often enhances the slide presentation.

TCR: Any advice for those who get rejected?

MF: The most important thing I’ve learned over the years is that the best shows are very competitive, the jurors are only human and the best slides do not necessarily place you in front. I try to not take rejection from shows too personally. I think about what I can do better, how to improve my work and not just the slides, and know that I’ve done my best and try again.

Judy Gillis — Repeat juror for American Craft Council; Past juror, Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair; Co-owner of The Real Mother Goose, Portland, OR.

TCR: How is picking artists for a juried craft show different from choosing artists for your store?

JG: In the jury you usually don’t know who made the work, where they are from, or how much they are charging, so you’re free to judge it only on its visual merits. When looking at work to buy for resale in a store, you have to think about how it fits the merchandise mix, price points, display needs, shipping-ability, needs of your customers and whether it is being sold at other places nearby.

TCR: It seems that shows always have to fight rumors that there’s a clique of artists who always get accepted, or that the process is somehow rigged. What’s your take on that?

JG: I’ve had many people ask me if I think the jury process is rigged — I can say from my perspective the answer is ‘NO.’ I felt like every effort was made to make it professional and fair.

So why do the same people get into the shows year after year? I think the answer is that they are the best at what they do. They also are usually familiar with the jury process and know the importance of quality photos.