Responding to Open Deadline Calls

Just got an email from an artist who was upset because a gallery we had listed as having an open deadline call seems to have closed its doors so that her package of images, etc. was returned by the PO as undeliverable. She wasn't happy about that, as who would be.

But it is always risky to send a package to any open-deadline call without contacting them first to see if they are still accepting entries and whether they have any recent special instructions. Not only can doing so save you time and trouble, it makes you appear more professional even if they are not currently accepting work.

Christiania Foundation Wants All Rights w/o Compensating Artists

Reader Doug Schwab points out that The Christiania Arts Foundation's “New Classic Nude” Billboard Contest requires anyone who submits work to the contest to give up all rights to that work. The rules state:

I irrevocably grant to Christiania, a non-exclusive license to use and otherwise exploit, as further specified below, my concepts, ideas, communications and/or materials (collectively, “Submission”) for the benefit of Christiania and its affiliates, including, without limitation, Christiania Classic Nude Billboard Contest and other Christiania branded programs and programming services (each, a “Program” and, collectively, the “Programs”), upon the following express understandings and conditions.

AOM had this contest listed as "No entry fee," but that's not quite right. While you don't have to part with cash, giving away your rights to a work could end up costing you plenty. And it's bad practice in any case. Why give a stranger a blank check?

On Line Submission and Jury Software

In case you are wondering about the overhead for on-line contests, it isn't much. One company offers a service that charges $2 per submission. It takes care of uploading the submission and making it available for all the jurors, including an on-line voting or rating system for the jurors to use. It also includes a PayPal processing module. PayPal charges a small basic fee plus a percentage for business accounts. If the submission fee is $25, the PayPal fee is under $1. So the gross profit per submission is $22.

Of course there are jurors fees to pay, but these are usually in the $50-200 range. Zero if you are doing it yourself.

When all submissions were via slides, the jurying process could be a lot of work and involve a good amount of overhead. Jurors had to be present and often had to be paid mileage on top of fees. Staff had to open all the envelopes, extract the slides, load the carosels, run the projectors, process the checks, unload the carosels, re-pack the slides, return them to the artists, supervise the volunteers, and so on. Submission via CDs cut down the work a bit if artists did not require the return of their CDs.

But online submissions involve so much less and should therefore have lower fees. Ask for them.

Another One We're not Listing

I have nothing against religion. In fact, we do list various things from Christians in the Visual Arts and others sponsored by synagogues, churches and something run by an Ecclesiastical Arts Foundation, but, whatever the strength of his religious beliefs, the guy behind www.ART4GOD.com contest is primarily a merchant in my opinion. He's run these contests for a number of years and stands to make a hefty profit.

Interestingly, the title on the page listing the contest is "Art for God: Retail."

Paying Entry Fees to For-Profit Galleries a Bad Deal for Artists

Isadore Gallery in Lancaster, PA, has put out a call for artists, “2009 Juried / Invitational Ceramic Cup Show.” They charge a $20 entry fee. Not an exhorbitant amount. Submission is by CDs only. The juror is a well-known potter. What's not to like? Only this: the gallery is a commercial venture. The business people who are running it are saying in effect: invest in our business. If the juror likes you work, we will show it for about a month. If the juror doesn't like your work, we will not show it. In either case, we get to keep your money. If we happen to sell something, we will give you a percentage of the price. But we think we won't sell very much, which is why we are asking for money from artists up front, before we even take a risk.

There is not evidence that this gallery is anything other than honest. But this is not a good deal for artists. The are some other galleries that operate this way but no other kind of business does. Imagine manufacturing cars or T-shirts or running shows and having to pay a store to look at your product, keeping you money if they didn't want to handle it, keeping you money and holding on to the product for a month if they did what to offer it for sale and then giving you back your product after a month if they didn't sell it.

No, other businesses buy your product outright, at wholesale. If it doesn't sell to their customers, they take the loss. The exception is consignment stores - which include most legitimate galleries -- which represent a very tiny proportion of all the retail outlets. They offer your product without buying it from you first; if it sells you get more than you would have at wholesale; if it doesn't sell, you get it back and they have not lost more than their normal overhead. But they didn't charge you to look at it first.

The main problem with selling anything on consignment, aside from not getting your money up front, is that the store owner (gallerist, proprietor, whatever), has a lot less impetus to sell your item than if he or she had already paid you for it. If that person has already gotten money from you, there is even less impetus.

The Future of Public Art Commissions

Most large public art projects are funded through Percent for Art programs (normally 1/2 to 2% of the total cost of a major new building project). This means that the amount of money available will always run behind the state of the economy, as the plans and budgets for those projects are settled long before the projects are begun. Nevertheless, because of serious funding problems in many municipalities and states, a number of projects have been put on hold or cancelled, thus there are fewer public art commissions available than there were a year ago.

If the economy were to turn around tomorrow, though, these projects would not be restored immediately, because of the lag. Similarly, it will take quite a while for new projects to to get to the point where calls for public art are issued.

Shorter Lead Times for Many Calls

Whether it's just the summer months or, more likely, unsureness about budgets, the time between an organization's issuing its call for artists and that call's deadline are likely to be shorter than they were, say, a year ago. This is particularly true of smaller municipalities issuing an RFQ. We have seen several recently that have had lead times of one or two weeks. The very short lead times can also be do to simple human factors, as many of the organizations are staffed mainly by volunteers or other humans.