Brenda Benson was euphoric when she received a Best of Show check for $3000. Debra Scoggin-Myers kicked a filing cabinet when she received a rejection notice. Artists experience a range of emotions when they enter juried and judged art shows.
Why do artists enter? It costs them time, money, and anxiety. Yet every artist in the Alliance Art Gallery who has entered the fray (13 of the 19 members) has become an award winner. The award names are as unique and varied as the art: Merit. Achievement in Art. Award of Excellence. Honorable Mention. First, Second, or Third Place. Purchase Award. Even Billboard Designee—or as Van Gogh experienced despite hundreds of paintings … nothing.
Two main forces seem to drive Alliance Art Gallery artists out of their solitary studio-based life into the risk of being judged. Exhibits challenge the artists to see their work in new ways. It also allows them to expand their exposure to audiences who may not come to the Gallery. “I like to see my work in a different environment,” Pat Kerns explains. “Yes, it is an honor to win an award, but for me it’s really about learning and challenging myself. I look at my work in a different way.”
Sometimes judges fail to recognize certain mediums as art. For example, it took years before jeweler Mary Beth St. Clair began to receive awards—jewelry simply fell outside the purview of judges used to more traditional mediums. Yet today, St. Clair frequently takes top awards such as Best of Show.
If an artist decides to exhibit, a number of hurdles need to be faced. First, you need a top notch photo of your entry. Second, the application fee can range from a modest $10 upward to even $50 per entry with no guarantees your work will be accepted. The Mary S. Oakley/Lee Lindsay Artist Showcase presented by the Quincy Art Center, for example, hangs only about 100 pieces no matter how many submissions they receive. At the 2019 Art Saint Louis XXXV The Exhibition, more than 500 works were submitted and 50 pieces were selected for exhibition.
Then the task of transporting your work can entail driving to and from a major city such as St. Louis or Kansas City—or face shipping costs. That requires an art-appropriate foam-lined box with a handle costing about $70 and then adding mailing costs. Debra Scoggin-Myers well remembers her panic when her value shipping box got buried in a back room among other artists’ emptied boxes.
Considering the time and costs, it makes sense to carefully discern if this show is the one for you. Ann Miller Titus periodically checks a website that networks information about numerous shows nationwide. She “juries” these entries through several lenses. Is she geographically eligible? If it is a regional New England show, she’s ineligible. Does her fiber art fit the medium? Is it a theme-based exhibit that matches her work? Would she have work available and ready? Do the dates fit her overall calendar? Is the venue reputable and one that can take proper care of her work? Is there prize money, indicating the sponsoring organization has a vested interest in the arts and resources to support it?
Even with all this discernment, she admits, “The number of people who actually get an award are very few. Just being juried into the show is, in effect, its own award.”
Her last question concerns the juror. “If I really admire this person’s work, I may want to get my work in front of them. I might be able to network later on. I’m making contacts.” In a recent show, she was invited by the judge to participate in a later curated show in Kansas City.
Out-of-town visitors to the Alliance Art Gallery often comment on the quality and diversity of the art in the Gallery—and its affordability. “This gallery is a good as anything we’ve seen in Chicago” (or St. Louis or Kansas City or Milwaukee or Minneapolis). But for Hannibaleans, it’s only a short drive away.
Every Second Saturday, we celebrate a guest artist and a member artist but this January is devoted to all our award-winning members—the ones who take the risk, sometimes kick the cabinet, and sometimes cherish the check.
An opening reception will be held Saturday, January 11, from 5:00 until 8:00 pm, to celebrate the many award-winning artists in the Alliance Art Gallery. A basket containing art from several members will be given away in a free drawing held at 6:00. This reception coincides with Hannibal’s Second Saturday Gallery Night.
Purely Spectral, work by Brenda Benson, 1st place winner in the 2017 Watercolor USA competition.
Debra Scoggin-Myers with her piece, Breakfast Club, 3rd place winner in the 2018 Mary S. Oakley/Lee Lindsay Artist Showcase in Quincy, Illinois
Pat Kerns with her paintingEvery Flower is a Smile From Heaven” presented with an Excellence Award at the 2019 Originale Exhibition, Hannibal Art Club
The Best of Show Award was presented to Mary Beth St. Clair at the 2019 Art in the Park, Columbia, MO
Ann Miller Titus with juror Robert Powell, judge for Art Saint Louis XXXIV, November 2018. Work pictured is titled “The Things We Carry 18.1” and was presented with an Award of Excellence