AOM Editor's Notes

AOM Subscriber Countries

2012-01-25T21:31:00.000-08:00

While the majority of AOM subscribers to the paid Professional Edition are from the US, we also have subscribers from the following:

Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Canada, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Moldava, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, S. Korea, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, UK, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA.

For the Free Edition, there are also subscribers from: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belguim, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.

Keeping track

2011-12-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

Almost every AOM entry has a unique number, although not in sequence. The number is the shortened URL of the prospectus or other information, with the digits representing the first issue it was published in. Fo example: AOM138a, AOM138b, and so on. You can leave off the "AOM," as that is the prefix for each. If you use Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat or one of the other readers, such as Foxit Reader, you can search for the number or any other unique word or phrase in the entry.

If you print AOM, you can use the page numbers plus the position on the page; for instance, "18+2" would mean page 18, two down from the top, "9-4" would mean page 9, four up from the bottom.

If you are not using the sophisticated search features of a PDF reader, you should give it try. Say you want to find all the grants, simply open the universal search box and enter grant. That would give you a list of everything that had that word in it. You want to find things in Chicago? enter "IL 606", things in SF and the greater SF Bay Area, use "CA 94", etc. The secret: the two letter state abbreviation followed by the first two or three digits of the ZIP code, depending on whether you want a city or the general area including the city. Of course, for the state, you'd use just the two-letter code. Works for media (see the code key), for things that are free to enter (search for "No fee"), etc.

Ma'am, Drop the Pencil and Back Away from the Easel

2011-09-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

From the Benicia CA police report:

7:35 p.m. [Sep 15]: A woman called and complained to police that someone was doing drawings of her daughter. Police arrived and asked the artist to stop drawing. The artist complied."

Brick Lane Gallery Stumbling

2011-09-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

AOM subscribers with work in the AOM gallery are getting emails from the Brick Lane Gallery in London. The writer says she "stumbled across" the artist's work on the "Arts [sic] Opportunities Monthly website and was really impressed with your work. "

The gallery describes itself as a "rentable gallery space." But "rentable" simply means vanity: you buy your way in. As I have stated many times, there are very few advantages to showing your work in any kind of vanity space and many disadvantages.

The advantages are that you get to see your work outside of your studio and having it on your resume will impress your co-workers and relatives who don't know anything about art. The disadvantages include: having it on your resume will negatively impress those who do know something about art -- the real dealers and collectors -- and in fact will often be the kiss of death; it will cost you a lot; and the odds of your selling enough to meet your expenses are terrible (real collectors steer clear of such places although tourists may not know any better).

There are programs which can search the Web to find art-related sites and copy all the email addresses. Brick certainly used one of those (although a human with very low salary requirements could do it by hand) and then sent everyone the same email.

Love your work, baby! Let's do lunch.

Celeste Prize Deadline Extended to Sunday 7 August, midnight

2011-07-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

Celeste Prize has sent this announcement:

Artists entering the prize may also be selected for other exhibitions organized by Celeste, residencies, an art course, receive priority exposure for their work, and of course our continued pledge to open and verifiable selections by our prize committee:
http://www.celesteprize.com/prize/

How do artists submit artwork to the prize?
If they are already registered onsite: simply click on the orange button 'Buy / Renew Prize 2011' in their personal admin.
If they are not registered onsite: they should register http://www.celesteprize.com/eng_auth_login/ , and then upgrade by clicking on the orange button 'Buy Prize 2011'.

Business Plans

2011-07-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

It's popular now for emerging artists to have business plans.

I think it is important for a beginning artist to not have a business plan. For the first few years out of art school, or the equivalent if self taught, the artist needs to be concentrating on her art practice and, as far as the business end of it goes, learning what's out there -- going to galleries, juried shows, other venues. A sort of post graduate course if you will.

When the time comes to enter the market, a business plan is often a good idea. But the main advantage of making one is thinking through the possibilities and working out which seem most suitable for your particular type of work and personality. The document should never be the goal; it should be the result of working out which plans of action seem best, at least for now.

It's important to get as much feedback on the plan as you can. People may come up with objections or cautions or courses of action with things you hadn't thought of. And keep in mind, that every criticism is simply data; it's what you do with it that counts. A negative comment may make you re-examine an idea or belief but ultimately cause you to be even more firm that it would be the right thing to do.

The odds are that as you get more information, as various things happen, as you carry out your plan, you'll have to change it. There's a character in Joseph Heller's "We Bombed New Haven" who says something like, "Things never turn out the way they were planned." The guy to whom he is speaking says, "That's really cynical." To which he replies, "No, I didn't say they turn out worse, only different. Sometimes better, sometimes worse."

Virtually every business that stays successful makes changes, sometimes radically so. Shell Oil, for instance, was originally a shipping company. They got stuck with a couple of tankers full of oil the intended recipients couldn't pay for, so they sold off the oil and discovered selling oil was more profitable than simply transporting it.

I forget their name now, but the biggest computer company in the UK for a long time started out as a pie company. In the early days of mainframe computers, they needed a program to keep track of all their orders and deliveries. One didn't exist, so they started building one. Soon, no more pie, but maybe pi.

The goal of a business is to make the biggest profit it can for as long as it wants to, while avoiding those things that would get it in trouble with the law or the taxman.

The goal of the artist, however, is to keep painting. And the reason for painting is not to produce paintings but to make the discoveries that end up in the paintings. And here we get into a realm too difficult to articulate in a few words, but you know what I mean.

How to figure your price before commission.

2011-07-10T22:45:00.000-07:00

If you know how much you want (your share) for a particular work you have entered into a competition or are showing in a gallery, how do you figure out the selling price?

If the commission is 50 percent, it's simple: just double your price.

For any other commission, the basic math is really the same, but since the relationship between the two numbers isn't as obvious, you have to do step by step what you did so easily in your head above. And here are the steps.

1. Change the commission from a percentage to a decimal. To do this, simply remove the percentage sign from behind the number and put a dot in front of it. Thus 40% becomes .40 (or .4; they're both the same).

2. Calculate your percentage; that is, the percent of the selling price you get. To do this, subtract the commission (expressed as a decimal) from 1. Using .40 from above, you'd get .60 (1-.40 =.60). If you can't do that easily in your head,, add two zeros to the 1 and remove the decimal point from the commission, so 100 - 40 = 60, then put the decimal point back, so it becomes .60.)

3. Divide the your percentage (the result above) into 1. Go ahead and use a calculator if you need to, but if you can do simple fractions in your head, you'll quickly see that .6 is the same as 3/5 (6/10) and that dividing any fraction into 1 is simply turning it upside down, so that you'd come up with the number 5/3, which is the same as 1 2/3. If you did this with a calculator you'd come up with the number 1.67, which is the same.

4. Multiply the result from step 3, above, times your share. So if your share -- the amount you want -- is $1000, the list price will be $1670, which you could round off to either $1650 or $1700 if you want.

The formula is list price = 1/(1- commission) x your share.

Using the figures above:

list price = 1/(1-.40) x 1000
list price = (1/.6) x 1000
lit price = 1.67 x 1000
list price = 1670

Macs Now Vulnurable to Malware

2011-07-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

Many artists use Macs, because of their longtime reputation as being more user- and image-friendly than PCs. Windows machines are now probably just as good in their ability to handle images, but they don't excel in any sort of comparison except one: the number and variety of malware -- viruses, spyware and such -- that infects them.

Until very recently, Macs simply didn't have malware. That changed with the recent introduction of a very nasty program that puts a warning on your screen saying you have a virus. The warning is a lie but it could turn into a prediction. When you first see the it, you don't have a virus. If you believe it and download the fake antivirus software as instructed, however, you will. And that new malware will steal your personal and financial information. Big problem.

Apple has released an update that will protect against these new forms of malware, at least the ones that are in the wild. Not only should you get that pronto, make sure you have Software Update set to automatically check and install any new updates. That may not be enough but it is a start. What will help even more is if you do not believe any warning that pops up on your screen -- or comes via email. Google it to see what it really is. Prefer accounts on reliable sites such a www.pcworld.com, www.macrumors.com, www.zdnet.com or even Apple's support site (which unfortunately can be a little slow to react.)

For more information, see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4650 and or http://xrl.us/AOMmacWarning ).

Hear of this gallery?

2011-06-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

Q: I came across this online gallery that charges a fee to show the artists work but the artist takes care of the actual sales, shipping and all that. It says it selects the work from that submitted rather than just showing something just because someone sends them a fee. Have you heard of it and is it a good deal?

A: Hadn't heard of it but always happy to find about such things. I did spend a fair amount of time looking through it.

It looks legitimate. Rather than having artists upload images, she links to the images on the artists' sites. Saves time and bandwidth for her. The question is whether you can realistically expect any return on your investment. Just having work sitting on a site calling itself a gallery doesn't mean there is a probability of sales.

If she isn't doing a lot of heavy marketing to the right kind of audience, she's just another one of the hundreds if not thousands of sites calling themselves galleries. There must be a total of millions of images on such sites, ranging from crude copies of popular commercial images or cartoons to sophisticated original work. So the chances of a casual surfer or shopper finding your work are tiny. The dealer has to invest serious time and money in finding and attracting a real market. So far, virtually all attempts at having a successful gallery selling original contemporary work online have failed. That's not to say a few artists here and there haven't done well, but they are the exceptions and they usually already had reputations and/or other ways of promoting their work.

A good rule is this: Whenever a site (or gallery or anything else) charges the artist money up front to show work, the owner -- the businessperson -- is saying she can probably make a better profit by getting money directly from the artists than by selling their work and taking a commission. And in so doing, she decreases her incentive to sell the work. Selling work is a time-consuming and costly affair, so why not just get the money directly for the artist and take the rest of the afternoon off?

Letter to an artist

2011-05-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

What follows is a slightly edited copy of a letter to an artist at the start of her career and who took a couple of workshops and read a book about "how to get into galleries." She was quite excited and hopeful because the book gave her lists of Do's and Don't's and was explicit in its rules of how to become a success.

Dear -----

I said I'd write again and so I am. Perhaps the most important thing for someone just starting out to promote her work is confidence and the belief she has the necessary tools. You have been given that, so you are on your way.

What comes next is a lot of trial and error. I have known hundreds of artists in my lifetime and interviewed and written about several, some of them quite famous. The one thing I can say about all of them and career success is: they each did it a different way.

In the last five years or so, there has been an explosion of people becoming art-coaches and art-marketing gurus, often promoting the basics of merchandise marketing as ways to market art. It is important for an artist just starting out to learn about these things, but it is, I believe, even more important to adopt only those which fit ones work and personality, adapt those which need to be altered, and discard those which don't fit.

I'm betting that as time goes by you'll also learn that there are galleries and then there are galleries and then there are galleries and that the method of "getting into" one that caters to one type of clientele will get you shunned by a different type. And that even amongst any one particular type of gallery, different directors/owners will have different requirements and turn-offs about how they are approached, and even those will change as the owner/director's needs, desires and experiences change. That doesn't mean that one doesn't need to have good images and clearly written statements, etc.

But it sounds like you have a really good start and nothing I have written is meant to or should diminish that. It's really exciting. Let me know when and where your work is up on the _______ site. And good luck.

Bios

2011-04-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

Some grant and other applications ask for a short bio, 100 - 300 words. This should be clear but not too detailed (that's what your resume is for).

It's just a thumbnail sketch, not a full blown portrait. The point is to give an overview of who you are. You can think of it as the answer to someone asking: "Tell me a little about yourself." If, in your answer, you start to list a lot of specific details, you would see your listener's eyes glaze over. You don't want that.

So: where you were born, where you live now, where you went to school if that is relevant, how long you have been a practicing artist (don't, for god's sake, say something like "as long as she can remember"), some twists and turns in your art career -- major changes in subject matter or medium, for instance -- what you have been doing lately and where you might be headed, and anything else that might give a sense of who you are. You don't have to include all of these things, of course.

Working ourselves out of a job

2011-04-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

A subscriber recently wrote about why she would not be renewing.

"I have decided not to renew, primarily because AOM has been such a good resource that I am now busier than I ever imagined, and so for this year at least am not looking for new opportunities.

"Thanks so much for providing AOM and best wishes for the future."

We don't want anyone to pay for something they can't use, but I can't help wondering: if we didn't work so hard to find, edit and publish so many good opps would she still be a subscriber. The answer is that she probably wouldn't have subscribed in the first place, as she is, like so many AOM subscribers, a serious, intelligent artist.

We're about to launch a new free three issues campaign. The link is http://www.artopportunitiesmonthly.com/AOM_3_free_sub.html in case you want to pass it along to your colleagues who would like to find such a resource that is so good they may not need it in a couple of years.

Liability in Oregon

2011-03-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

According to Oregon Statues 359.200 to 359.255, “'Art dealer'” means an individual, partnership, firm, association or corporation, other than a public auctioneer, that undertakes to sell a work of fine art created by another."

Section 359.210 (c), states: "A consignee [the dealer] is liable for the loss of or damage to the work of fine art while it is in the consignee’s possession where such loss or damage is caused by the failure of the consignee to use the highest degree of care. For the purpose of this subsection, the value of the work of fine art is the value established in a written agreement between the consignor and consignee prior to the loss or damage or, if no written agreement regarding the value of the work of fine art exists, the artist’s portion of the fair market value of the work of fine art."

And, furthermore, in 359.230: "Any provision of a contract or agreement whereby the consignor waives any of the provisions of ORS 359.200 to 359.255 is void. [1981 c.410 §7]."

Meaning, at least in Oregon, anyone showing or offering your work for sale -- regular art dealer, nonprofit gallery, virtually anyone acting in the capacity of art dealer -- is liable for the damage or loss, under normal circumstances, and anything that person makes you sign to the contrary isn't worth the paper it's written on.

I believe that you cannot sign away a right a law gives you, in this or any other state. I have a sharp lawyer looking into this whole question of liability for art work and will report on what I learn later.

Liability in Montana

2011-03-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

According to lawyer Bill Frazier, writing in the March/April 2011, Montana Arts Council's State of the Arts, "In Montana, anyone taking possession of an artist's artwork, for show, sale, auction, gallery display or any other purpose, is liable for it, whether there is insurance coverage or not, and the liability cannot be waived by the artist."

Frazier, in private practice, was chairman of the Montana Arts Council for years.

More on Gallery Liability

2011-03-02T19:42:00.001-08:00

I'm still troubled by the information I got from the lawyer recommended by California Lawyers for the Arts. It doesn't jibe with what I had heard in various workshops and read elsewhere. I'll have to look into the matter further. In California at least, the law is pretty clear about artwork in a dealer's care.

According to California codes Civil Code, Section 1738.6 (c) an art dealer who takes in works by an artist on consignment is responsible for the loss of or damage to the work of art. It reads in substantial part:

(a) The art dealer, after delivery of the work of fine art, shall
constitute an agent of the artist for the purpose of sale or
exhibition of the consigned work of fine art within the State of
California.
(b) The work of fine art shall constitute property held in trust
by the consignee for the benefit of the consignor, and shall not be
subject to claim by a creditor of the consignee.
(c) The consignee shall be responsible for the loss of, or damage
to, the work of fine art.

...

It goes on to state in Section 1738.8:

Any provision of a contract or agreement whereby the
consignor waives any provision of this title is void.

In plain English this means that a dealer is responsible for what happens to your work while it is in her/his custody and anything the dealer makes you sign to the contrary isn't worth the paper it is printed on.

Why this should not apply to a non-profit art center -- which is acting as a dealer when it accepts your work for a show from which it can be sold -- I don't know.

I don't want things to be harder for non-profit art centers, but my main concern is the individual artist. Even if it is true, as the one lawyer told me, that insurance for the individual artist is cheap, allowing the art center to absolve itself from all responsibility is disrespectful toward the artist, and, as I mentioned before, only encourages carelessness and poor security from the center.

In my opinion, forcing the artist to sign a release of liability only further marginalizes the artist and the value of his/her work. If the law is indeed what the one lawyer said it is, wouldn't it be so much more respectful for the center to say something like this: "We have a very meager budget but we value your work highly and will do our very best to see that it is not damaged, lost or stolen. If, in the unlikely event something should happen to it, we will work with you to make it right to the best of our ability."

Comments and information welcome.
.

Yes, there is no liability!

2011-02-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

There is plenty of confusion about whether galleries, non-profit or for profit -- it doesn't matter -- are liable for what happens when something is under their care.

I spoke with the lawyer provided through California Lawyers for the Arts for nearly 10 minutes. At first, he thought I represented the gallery. When we got that straightened out, he told me that while my work was enroute to the gallery, the gallery had no liability for it.

I told him I was absolutely clear on that and wasn't asking about that. But what about when it was in their possession? That was what I was specifically asking about. He said they could require that an artist sign a Release from Liability because it was in exchange for a consideration, namely that they were going to be selling the work and taking a commission.

He said they probably couldn't afford insurance and that the artist should get his or her own insurance. It doesn't cost much, he said, you could probably get a rider on your home-owner's policy. I mentioned that insurance was simply a way of meeting ones financial obligations when one was liable, wasn't it, that it didn't relieve one of liability? He agreed and moved on.

According to this lawyer, if a gallery is to sell your work on consignment, they can require that you release them from liability. I didn't get a chance to ask him if that were true if your work were not for sale.

I'm not happy about it his answer. I understand that many non-profit galleries have very limited budgets and that they are performing a service in showing the work and offering it for sale.

To release them from all liability, however, is to encourage careless handling and poor security. The response from a staff member at one art center, according to an artist who balked at the release from liability form he was offered was, "Oh, [the other paid staff member] and I are careful, but some of our volunteers are pretty clumsy." In other words: the person who actually handles your work or leads tours around the gallery may knock it over and break it but: tough luck

2011-01-15T14:39:00.000-08:00

A couple of selections about AOM from Caroll Michels's "The Newsletter." (Michels is the author of How To Survive and Prosper as an Artist: Selling Yourself Without Selling Your Soul, 6th ed), generally considered one of the best books on the subject:

Art Opportunities Monthly is now providing a completely free version of “their highly acclaimed opportunities list for visual artists. The new AOM Free is the largest free list available anywhere. Each entry is vetted to eliminate the scams and the for-profit soak-the-artist schemes that flood other lists and sites. Each issue of AOM Free contains 250-350 carefully screened and condensed entries, delivered as a PDF directly to each subscriber's email address. There are no passwords or URLs to remember. Each issue may be read with Adobe Reader or other such free programs or may be printed in part or in whole. Each email and URL is hot, so the user can send an email or go right to the prospectus for more information or to apply. There is also a sophisticated search system to find listings by media, geographic area or terms such as ‘grant’ or ‘no entry fee’.” Link: http://www.artopportunitiesmonthly.com/freeversion.html

- Be sure to check out Benny Shaboy’s blog http://aomednotes.blogspot.com . He is the editor of Art Opportunities Monthly (see above). He provides insights into some suspicious so-called “opportunities for artists,” and dialogues with AOM subscribers. In the AOM Newsletter he writes: “Unlike other services, we do not knowingly include outright scams, for-profit galleries that charge fees to enter, individuals pretending to be galleries or contests that exist only to take money away from artists.”

Artist Trust Revamped Site

2011-01-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

Artist Trust has launched a "fully re-engineered new website." Their mission "to support and encourage artists of all disciplines in order to enrich community life throughout Washington State."

In our opinion, the new site, both in content and design, is one of the best of its kind out there.

Cartier Award Postponed

2011-01-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

Frieze Foundation's Cartier Award, which allows artists living outside the UK to realize a major project at Frieze Art Fair, has been postponed. An announcement of its new deadline and entry requirements is expected in late January.

Searhing AOM for you Medium

2010-12-23T23:58:00.000-08:00

Dear AOM: There are few shows in AOM are for watercolors ... and no show seemed be calling for work such as mine, which is personal rather than typical, as you can see by the example in the AOM Gallery. --A Subscriber

Dear Sub,

You are right that listings strictly for watercolor -- those in the section called Watercolor and Watermedia -- are usually for work that is more academic than yours. This will tend to be true when the jurors have NWA or NWS after their names.

But in each issue of AOM, there are dozens of other shows that accept all sorts of watercolors, even give them prizes. Start by looking in the top section, All Media. Each entry marked "All" or "2D" potentially accepts water media. Then use Adobe Reader's Full search function to find those marked "2D" works "on paper", as well as those marked WM or WC but which are in the Various Media or other sections.

Here's what I found in the December issue:

All: 72
2D: 28
on paper: 4
WC: 11
WM: 5

That's a total of 120. Now, some of those are duplicates; i. e., one call lists more than one of them, such as listing both WC and WM. And some are things you might not be interested in right now, such as residencies or fellowships or curatorial calls. But that still leaves a huge number of potential opps that will accept watercolors.

You can read through each quickly to see if it is worth investigating further. For instance, you would quickly eliminate those looking for a subject matter or theme outside what you have or are interested in. If the call passes that test, go to the website sponsoring the show and see if there is a real reason your work might not fit, such as it being abundantly clear from the images that their aesthetic or philosophy is antithetical to yours, completely different in some meaningful way. Remember, though, that you can't tell what a juror will like based on his or her work. Some will prefer work that is quite different, some will prefer work that is sort of the same and some will try to "mix it up" for the show, picking what they think represents a good variety.

And everything about watercolor above applies to any other medium.

Camargo Foundation Suspends Fellowship Program

2010-11-21T10:01:00.000-08:00

The Camargo Foundation has recently issued a press release announcing the suspension of its fellowship program for the 2011-2012 academic year and is not currently accepting applications. It had been awarding 1 semester fellowships in Cassis, France, to complete a specific project. These included a studio, apartment and $2.5 stipend.

Information about a renewed program will be available in October 2011.

Heavy-Duty Spammer

2010-11-09T16:33:00.000-08:00

An outfit from Scottsdale, Arizona, that calls itself Xanadu Gallery has been spamming artists whose email addresses are on the Web. The spam is titled: "Boston Artists' Workshop | Learn How to Get into Galleries and Sell Your Art." It claims to be about "an exclusive marketing seminar in Boston." We got more than a dozen copies, to our various addresses, including those on forms and reserved for specific purposes such as subscriber upload of images.

The owner, J. Jason Horejs, has used "scraper" or "spambot"software to copy all email address from our site -- and other artist or art-related sites probably -- whether they belong to artists, art organizations, municipalities, state governments, universities or churches, and no matter where in the world located. He apparently cannot distinguish Boston from Bosnia from Botswana nor artists from State Purchasing Agencies.

Yet the seminar he is offering promises to teach artists how to "take your art career to the next level and start selling your work in galleries." He claims he'll provide his customers an "inside understanding of the gallery business." If what he teaches is any reflection of his own marketing methods, though, you might want to look elsewhere. Honest galleries will never respond to spamming or misrepresentation. Ones looking to take advantage of naive artists might, though.

At the request of an artist, I once researched Xanadu and his advice. Don't have time to go into how the gallery works right now other than to say it is a novel way of garnering a profit for the owner but not for the artist. Much of his advice to artists was the same tired stuff everyone who is not a raw beginner knows, but some of the details had little bearing on reality. For instance, he said that one of the ways to make your work seem like a cohesive body was to use similar frames. Every legitimate gallery owner or worker and every art school graduate knows what is wrong with that statement and what it reveals about the person who would make it.

The Non-Verbal Dictionary...

2010-10-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

The Non-Verbal Dictionary doesn't have many pictures yet it's an interesting resource for artists, especially those who represent human figures or faces. Many of the things defined therein are known by artists through observation but not by name. You may perform a zygomatic smile of recognition or discover at many of them or otherwise have your limbic system stimulated.

The site is flawed by not having an easily accessible table of contents or index, if it has any at all, but the text of each definition is littered with links that lead from happiness to gaze-down to amphibian brain with merely a shoulder-shrug.

Become a Huge Success With the Greatest Hype in the World!

2010-09-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

Virtually all for-profit contest mills promote their "calls-for-artists" with hyperbole and very few if any legitimate opportunities do. I'm immediately suspicious when I get an announcement that uses superlatives.

For instance, I just got one from a person calling himself Maximillian Gallery -- I'm pretty sure this is a sole proprietorship w/o regular employees. It wasn't over-the-top hype, but enough to make me look further. As soon as I read "the purpose of this exciting competition," I could tell the main function of the contest is to turn a profit for the individual behind it. I've got nothing against profit per se, but I hate to see artists taken advantage of. The secondary purpose, it seems, is to launch a business selling reproductions. There are no cash prizes; instead, the winners get "A Limited Edition print," with five copies going to the artists. Not clear what kind of prints or what size. There are other, lesser, prizes, also consisting of services by Maximillian, such as being mentioned in a press release and having an image on the Web.

The email offers artists 40 percent of revenue from Speed Racer™ art sales (the contest is for images of that cartoon) and claims "additionally, art galleries/art dealers and artists may benefit with ongoing revenue from licensing and publishing opportunities." A sixty percent commission is high in any brick and mortar gallery. Max seems to be online only and is also charging artists to enter, which a legitimate selling gallery doesn't do. The business about licensing revenue may be true but it is in there primarily to dangle dollar signs in front of a naive artist. There seems to be nothing about how the merchandise will be marketed! Wow.

The site itself looks professional at first glance. Under the logo are listed Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris. A little investigation uncovers no evidence of Max's presence in any of those cities, so why are those words there? It wouldn't be to fool the casual observer into thinking this was a big deal international gallery, would it? The contact page gives a P. O. Box in Beverly Hills. It's safe to assume their only presence is online.

The total number of artists they currently represent is three, one listed under the site link that says artists and that same person plus two others under the site link that says licensing. Not confidence inspiring.

2010-09-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

AOM--

hi!
I am not interested in a renewal of AOM. I find more valuable contests for my work through other lists available for free.
-KFL [after three-free issue trial ran out]

KFL--

Thanks for having tried AOM! We'll remove you from the list as you wish. Sorry it didn't meet your needs at this time, but please contact us whenever we may be of service.

Your "more valuable contests" may not actually be. We look at many more possibilities than we publish. We screen out those "contests" that exist primarily to turn a profit for the business owners that run them yet provide very little real benefit for artists or their careers. These are often referred to as contest mills or competition mills in the art world and they appear regularly on the free lists and are promoted heavily by direct email and through paid advertisements.

Such contests tend to accept most entrants -- a business strategy designed to encourage people to enter time after time. There is no real harm done to the artist who wants to impress family and friends, but serious art collectors or professional art dealers normally will shun the artist who has such contests on his/her resume.

Unfortunately, there are dozens of such contest mills, possibly hundreds. Some are tiny, operating out of a bedroom or home office. After all, you only need a computer and gallery software to run one. Some online gallery programs are entirely automatic, relying on the artist to enter the information, upload the images and make the payment, leaving the owner to sip Mai-Tais by the pool and chuckle.

Some of them are quite active and do a lot of promotion, often sending mass emails to artists whose information has been collected from the Internet through scraper programs (which gather up every name and email address that appears on a site with the word "artist" on it). Or they advertise heavily in some of the art deadline lists aimed at amateur and naive artists. Or both.

So look before you leap.

-B

PS: Just because something appears on a free list but not in AOM doesn't mean it is a contest mill or a scam. It may have missed our deadline or we may have overlooked it. When in doubt, contact us and we will give you our honest opinion based on research.

Wounded in Action

2010-08-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.woundedinactionart.org/artist.php?artist_uid=1

I was checking an old call to see if it had been replaced by a new one. It hadn't, but then I started to look at the images submitted to the old call, which was for art created by orthopedic patients wounded in war or their families or care givers. I started with this image, then went on to the next
and eventually though them all. They are arranged alphabetically by the artist's last name.

In general, the work by the professional artists is not as good as the "primitive" work by amateurs. At least it is not as poignant. I think there is a lesson here but I don't know what
it is yet.

Call for photos of unmade beds

2010-08-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

A request from Leah in NY

In preparation for my next exhibition of the 101 Beds, I am creating Unmade Beds: A Photo Collection (http://unmadebedproject.tumblr.com/) comprised of photographs of unmade beds . . . taken BY YOU of YOUR BED the moment after your feet hit the ground!

If you want, you can do even do it with your cell phone camera . . . To participate, just follow this link: http://unmadebedproject.tumblr.com/

Just take a snapshot of your unmade bed and email as a jpeg to artallianceny@gmail.com_ with your name and the city/state, of your image. It's easy and with your help I will have at least 1000 images this month.

Pass it on to all your friends, your Facebook community. . . everyone is welcome to participate.

Another Vanity Book to Suck Money from Needy Artists

2010-08-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

Yet another vanity book has appeared on the playing field, ready to take the money of naive, needy and usually mediocre artists. It is being "published" by two women who claim to be curators and collectors. They call themselves incoartists.com and the proposed book, "International Contemporary Artists".

Their business plan is nothing new: put out a call for artists, claim to charge nothing to enter, but require a prepublication purchase of the book to qualify for inclusion, in this case about $220 for two full-color copies. (Or about $90 for one black and white edition, but who would?) They of course hope each artist buys more than two books. And anyone who is already going to spend that kind of money for a 150-page paperback book, will probably buy several.

The judges of who gets in are the publishers themselves. If you look at the samples of who has been accepted, you can see the standards aren't quite those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Distribution, they claim, "is made internationally through large wholesalers and e-shops, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders and more." Which means nothing. It means they are going to make the book available through those places, which virtually anyone can do. And they say nothing about shipping it to galleries, collectors and such (which never accomplishes anything of value, anyway). The odds of the book selling more than 100 copies to people who are not connected with an artist in the book are extremely slim. The organizers say nothing about the retail cost of the book. If it is the same as the cost to the participating artist, I lower my estimate of total copies sold to outsiders to four. No one but a drunk or a fool would shell out that kind of money for a paperback book of ordinary art.

All of the above assumes the book actually gets published. If it doesn't get published it's a scam. If it does get published . . .

Guest Blog

2010-08-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

http://reneephillips.blogspot.com/2010/08/read-this-before-you-enter-art.html

Starting Out with AOM

2010-08-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

Hey Benny,

I did not use the first AOM at all. I am resubscribing because Caroll Michels recommends it and I know it has value. How do I use it, what do I look for? I see it as a great marketing tool.

Can you explain or give examples of how other artists use it?

C. S.

Hey, C. S.,

As with all good tools, there are many things you can do with AOM; the more you learn about it, the more you can do with it. But there is plenty you can do right out of the box.

Perhaps the best way to start is to skim the whole issue first, to get an idea of what is in it. You'll see a lot of abbreviations that will be meaningless to you at first but will start to make sense after a while. To speed things up, look at the abbreviation keys in the boxes. Many of the abbreviations for media are fairly self evident. For instance, PA is PAinting, PH is PHotography and PR is PRintmaking. 2D is two-dimensional work, which would include everything for drawing to painting to photography.

And of course things have been placed in categories, each with a heading. So look at the category that deals with your particular medium, then at the categories that would also contain it. If you are a photographer, you can look at Photography, All and Various Media. If you are looking for a residency or want your work in a registry, etc., look in those sections.

There is also a key to the general layout of entries. Each entry has its contents in essentially the same order as each other, so after a while, you'll be able to read them quickly and make sense of them.

A good place to learn more is in the FAQ, at http://www.artopportunitiesmonthly.com/faqs.html.

And if you can't find what you need to know there, just drop me a line. AOM is really a service, not simply a product.

-B

Charlatan Ink Prize?

2010-08-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Benny,

Have you heard of the Charlatan Ink Prize? (What a name!)

I received an invitation to this in my email and because I get so many invitations to "vanity" shows, I was immediately skeptical.

This may be perfectly wonderful and all, and maybe it's just my general nature to be suspicious, but who is Charlatan Ink? My Googling efforts turn up nothing but entry after entry of this particular promotion itself. I can't find anything on their site about their plans for exhibition other than a vague reference to "the exhibiting Gallery/Exhibition Space".

The prize is evidently in its "inaugural year." Has anyone ever heard of these jurors? $50 per entry is a lot of money. -- E. D.

Dear E. D.,

I did quite a bit of checking. This sounds at best like a conceptual piece from which the organizers hope to make some money. The jurors are simply friends of the two artists running it it. None of them has any "weight" in the art world. Normally, these big entrance fee competitions have a very prestigious list of judges -- which is one of the ways they can draw entrants.

The "sponsors" are not really sponsors; they are companies which are providing some services in exchange for having their names mentioned. One of them is even an outfit run by one of the organizers. None of them are real art world or business world "names."

The main question for any artist is bigger than, "Is this legit?" The main question is: "Is this worthwhile?"

There are too many red flags, here, one of which you mentioned: there are no Google references not prompted by the organizers themselves. The have no history.

At $50, it's not worthwhile, legit or not. If the judges were more prominent, if the sponsors were connected with the real art world or the real big business world and the production were more professional, it might be worthwhile. If the entry fee were $10, it might be worthwhile. As it is: too many negative points and not enough positive ones.

The only positive point is the $25,000 first prize, but we have no way of knowing whether it will really be awarded and, if it is, will go to a real entrant or to an organizers' spouse, relative or friend. They say the names of the artists will not be know to the judges, but that means little. I have served on a number of juries and quickly recognized the work of people whom I knew personally or whose work I knew. (I tried to not let that influence me.) And even if everything is on the up-and-up, there is no telling if they'll get enough entries to even cover their costs. These sorts of things seems simple to people who have no experience doing them, but the pitfalls are many and they always take a lot more work than imagined.

Actually, the size of the prize is one of the things that puts me into the doubting column. No other prizes for individual artists are this huge in the first run of a contest, with the possible exception of those offered by large non-profit foundations or by foundations set up by the survivors of an artist who has established the prize in his/her will.

Bottom line: no compelling evidence it's a scam but no compelling evidence it is worthwhile to enter.

Repeating Deadlines

2010-07-18T10:53:00.000-07:00

Certain calls for artists have regular deadlines: once a year, every six months, every quarter. These tend to be grants, residencies, fellowships and other opps that have good awards. They also require a lot of work to prepare for.

Put the ones in which you are interested on an electronic reminder (there are many free online services as well as iPod apps and computer programs). Enter not only the deadlines, but your own do-by deadlines such as "CD ready" or "application final draft." Many of the services or programs also have to-do lists and notepads you can use as well.

Online Contest Mill Wannabe?

2010-06-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

Originally posted June 16, 2010.

Someone calling himself Dave Bown Projects is offering $5000 in prizes to winners of the "1st Semiannual Competition." Costs $30 to enter. Might be legit, might not. Lots of signs it might be just an easy way to raise some capital: 1) Virtually nothing else on his website except a series of images by well-known contemporary artists. Nothing to say what they are doing there; perhaps they exist to give the prospective entrant the idea the he/she will be in good company. 2) Whatever he is doing, has just started, as Dave Bown Projects is not referenced anywhere else in Google but by his site and by the various competition listings he has submitted his contest to. 3) Nevertheless, his "about" page says DBP started in 2005. 4) Bown claims he will "produce a Press Release and obtain Reviews" and then goes on to say "our private network (offline database) includes over 13,000 contacts spanning over 80 countries. Furthermore, we will have an announcement sent via email to an aggregate of over 76,000 subscribers."

As someone who has worked in the field, I can tell you sending a press release is unlikely to obtain reviews of a online show of 25 images by people who are submitting to contests at $30 a pop and showing in a space with no track record. He doesn't tell us who those subscribers are. If they are not people interested in buying art, it doesn't matter how many of them there are. Also, he announces he will be buying art himself. There's only one reason to make such an announcement: to induce people to enter the contest.

It takes only 167 submissions at $30 to equal the prize money. Putting on a contest like this takes some overhead, but the rest is pure profit. Nothing wrong with a legitimate contest, but look out for ones making questionable stements.

Shipping Guide for Canadian Artists

2010-06-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

Artist-photographer Raymond St. Arnaud has written a comprehensive guide for other Canadians who need to ship work to the USA. Its aim is to help the artist avoid paying brokerage charges, which can be prohibitive. There is also information on acquiring the USA ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number) required by an artist in order to get paid by public institutions. The download-able PDF is accompanied by rtf templates of the forms required for each step in the shipping process. All this is available on Ray's site
.

Vanity Galleries vs. Competition Mills

2010-05-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

Vanity galleries are businesses that require artists to pay to show. That's how they make their money, not by selling art. Gallery mills have lots and lots of calls for artists, for which they charge a submission fee. That's how they make their money. In general, it is not a good deal for an artist to bother with either sort of business, because sales will be few to non-existent and knowledgeable collectors normally don't frequent such places.

Some competition mills and vanity galleries disguise themselves as co-ops or membership galleries, but the goal is always the same: to provide an income for the owner primarily or exclusively through payments from artists rather than from commissions on sales to collectors.

It is often instructive to read the "About" page on its website. If there is talk of services for artists or opportunities for artists, the business sees artists, not art buyers as its primary customers,. For example, a gallery on Long Island City, 50 miles from Manhattan, says showing with them will: "provide an opportunity for artists to become an active member of the arts community of New York City, whether they are showing for the first time or the artist has years of exhibition experience." Notice how vague and squishy this really is. What is really being offered to the careful reader?

Artists worth nothing, but money flapped at them

2010-05-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

"In lieu of payment, each artist and one guest will be an invited guest ($10 entry fee waved) . . ."

-from Mesa Contemporary Art prospectus

3-Free Issue AOM Sub Offer Still Good

2010-05-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't yet had a chance to pass it on to your AOM-challenged colleagues, the 3-free issue AOM subscription offer is still good. Your reward for passing it along is you get an image of your work placed in the pool to be used in a feature issue, perhaps even on the cover page (tell those to whom you forward the offer to mention your name). If you need the text, it's:
===========================

Art Opportunities Monthly (AOM) is offering a free, no-obligation 3-month subscription to introduce its new format. It is now much easier to read, a snap to search and it looks nice, too.

AOM, a monthly list of opportunities for artists and photographers world-wide, has been around for over 10 years. It is preferred and trusted by professional artists because it screens out the scams and for-profit "contests" and presents each hand-selected opp in a quick-to-scan capsulized form. It is sent in a highly search-able, freshly organized PDF directly to your email address..

To find out more and sign up, simply go to:

http://xrl.us/AOM3free
(Link to www.artopportunitiesmonthly.com)

Your email address and other information will be kept absolutely private and you will not be spammed. This offer is for new subscribers only.

Offer expires June 15, 2010

============================

Celeste Prize and Network

2010-05-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

We agreed to sent an announcement about the Celeste Prize and network to the AOM subscription list in exchange for their sending our announcement about the 3-free issue subscription to theirs. Their network consists mainly of contemporary artists, dealers, curators and other art professionals based in Europe.

If you haven't seen the announcement, it's at http://artopportunitiesmonthly.com/temp/Celeste Prize 2010, 2nd Edition - New York.html.

The organization is interesting and vital. The entry fee for the competition is huge -- 90 EU, I think. Nevertheless, you can join the network for free.

RSS Feed Now Active

2010-05-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

Started an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed of late-breaking calls-to-artists we receive too
late to put in the next scheduled issue of AOM or that have too little lead time after the issue's publication date -- between the 1st and 6th of the month.

These will not be in the capsulized AOM format, nor will they have the shortened AOM URLs (http//xrl.us/AOM...), because those take a great deal of time to prepare and must be done in large batches, but they will have links to the sites of the calls so you can check the prospectuses.

I've added the feed to this blog. You have permission to ad it to yours.

If your browser is the latest version or has the right extension, simply enter:
http://www.artopportunitiesmonthly.com/aomupdates.xml. I'm pretty sure there's a blogger.com widget that I can add that will publish the RSS feed right on this page, too. If you see it, I've found it.

If you want something fancier, there are many RSS readers to choose from, both online readers and stand-alone software. If you already have a gmail account or want to sign up for one, you can use Google's Reader www.google.com/reader. There are other similar on-line readers.

A comparison of some stand-alone readers is at: http://blogspace.com/rss/readers.

If you are already reading RSS feeds, let us know your favorite ways of doing so.

Hanging Fees

2010-04-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

A subscriber wrote about hanging and handling fees. She said she had been starting to notice them and didn't like what she saw. She said, "This is getting to be too too much."

These handling fees have been around a while in the watercolor society shows (AWS or NWS and some regional ones) and some other fancy shows for traditional art. Such shows have big prize pools. An award in one of them can be as much as $10,000 and make a difference in a how much a the winner can charge for workshops or how-to videos. With those lures, the watercolor societies, pastel societies and portrait societies are able to charge the hanging fees.

The practice is starting to be picked up by organizations that don't give out huge prizes or hold prestigious competitions, however. I rarely mention those fees in AOM because it gets complicated and I figure if the artist is interested and reads the prospectus and the fee turns her off, that takes care of it. When I do mention it, it usually means I think the show isn't a good deal.

I recently got an email from a subscriber who volunteers with an organization in Northern California. She thought I had been attacking the whole idea of fees. In that particular case, the fees were about average. She explained they didn't get government money so had to charge the fees. She went to great lengths to defend what her organization was doing with the fees they collected: bringing poor kids in to see the shows -- things like that. All of which is admirable-ish, but a clear admission that the sum of the fees was greater -- it seems much greater -- than what was needed just to administer the particular competition. And these weren't even high fees.

I do understand that an organization needs funds and that they have to come from somewhere. Charging artists to enter shows is certainly not the only way to raise funds, but it is the easiest so it is used often. I'm not saying that organizing a show and presenting it is not a lot of work, it is.

But it would be nice if organizations would be up front about the fees: Dear Artist, we are having a competition and charging fees high enough to not only cover our expenses for the exhibit but to also fund significant parts of our program. Don't worry if you are rejected; we will use your money to bus in widows and orphans to get some culture.

I don't mean to be sarcastic. I'm simply suggesting a little truth in advertising. Perhaps if artists would start writing emails objecting to high fees and hanging and handling fees it would do some good. And also asking what the money is going to be used for. Right now, the organizations have a blank check. Most of them are honorable, I'm sure, but they are public institutions and should be asked how they spend the money they get from artist fees. If they are non-profits, their yearly budgets must be made available for inspection, with some limits.

Fees to Donate to Charity Fundraisers

2010-03-24T08:02:00.001-07:00

I am seeing more and more charity events which ask artists to not only donate their work to be sold, usually at auction, to raise money for the organization, but to pay a fee for doing so.

In one recent case, the $35 submission fee was to be paid directly to the artist's charity of choice, chosen from a list. Monies raised from the auction were supposed to be commingled by the umbrella organization and then apportioned out to its chosen recipients. The artist who sold nothing was out $35. The artist who sold something, was out the time, materials, blood sweat and tears it took to make that piece plus $35.

In the case of something I just looked at, there is a juried submission process. No fee to submit. If selected, though, the artist has to pay $35. On top of that, the organization takes a 40% commission on sales.

Nothing wrong in donating to a charity of your choice, of course. I support that. But these guys are treating artists as wimpy little money machines who would sell their birthright for "exposure." Too bad it works. What the organizations are doing, that is. The exposure, not so much. In my experience, very few artists have benefited from having their work in charity auctions. Usually the people who buy the work are bargain hunters who do not buy work at real prices. And often the artists are disappointed because their work either didn't sell or because it sold for a relatively low price, of which the artist got little or nothing.

Seems best to give work only for those causes one believes in, and give it the same way one would give money or some other donation -- freely, with little concern other than helping.

Taking it to a New Level

2010-03-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

Crussell Fine Arts in Orange CA has issued a call for art to be purchased by a new Bloomingdale's store to open in August 2010 in Santa Monica. Crussel will administer the purchase of the works.

This sort of thing is usually handled by an art consultant. There are thousands of art consultants in the US. They range in experience from hey-what-the-hell-I'll-give-it-a-try to savvy professionals who help corporations and individuals build up impressive collections. They generally operate by building up a substantial registry of images from artists whom they have selected as appropriate for their client base. The legitimate among them do not charge these artists to submit. Rather, they make their income from actual sales, normally taking about 50% of the selling price.

Mr Russel, too, is taking a 50% commission on all the work sold to Bloomingdale's. That should result in a hefty fee, which we don't begrudge him. But he is also requiring artists to pay him $35 just to submit their work to be considered. That's not normal. It's also not good business sense, either, as it will screen out the more established artists who feel, rightly, they shouldn't have to pay for their work to be considered.

The cynical among us might think he already has his "better" artists lined up to show Bloomingdale's and is simply issuing the pay-to-play call to pick up a bit more cash and perhaps a few more artists for the pool. But it would be too cynical to think such a thing.

Slick Deal

2010-02-07T12:05:00.000-08:00

I came across this about a year ago, but just re-discovered it. Someone named Jesse Ross set up a site called workingartist.com. Sez its purpose is to to provide a "meager quarterly offering intended to dispurse [sic] small but vitalizing bursts of funding to those who find our sum would solve a surprising many problems hindering their ongoing art making process."

EThe concept, if not the language, sounds straight-forward. There's more, however: "As a stipulation for eligibility to receive the Working Art Grant of $500.00, we ask that each prospective recipient be willing to exchange one of their available works of our mutual agreement in return for the award." Which means that Ross gets an original work of art for $500, an original work which he -- or other unnamed jurors -- has decided is the best of the best. Not a bad deal for him in itself--

But an artist must apply for the grant. It costs $20. So Ross is purchasing the work with other people's money. He's getting it free, in other words. Anything collected over the $500, we assume goes to maintain the site and is not returned to the unsuccessful applicants. There is an out of pocket cost of $3-10 a month for Web hosting. Also, he also has to pay someone, presumably himself, to post the images of the winners and make various text updates. Depending on one's hourly rate, this could cost another $20-100 every three months.

This is not necessarily a scam. But one always wants to know: who is choosing the artists that get the award, what are the criteria, what happens to income in excess of the award? Things like that.

In looking for answers, I found that the individual running this owns 60 other domains and that, with one possible exception, everyone listed as having received an award is someone who had an association with him prior to his launching this site. Just friends helping friends, I guess.

Rejected

2010-01-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

Q: I was recently disappointed by a rejection from a juried show. I was sure I had a good chance after seeing what others had brought in. It will be interesting to see what they hang.

A: Sorry to hear about your rejection. The odds are that you will be rejected more often than you will be accepted, no matter how good your work is. Some of this is simply luck. For instance, there may be more than 1000 entries. Sometimes there are many more. If you have submitted, say, a landscape, but there are 100 other landscapes before the jurors get to yours, they may be past the point where they simply don't want to accept any more landscapes. Or they may be visually exhausted by the time they get to yours. Looking at 400 images and making a decision about each one is hard work. Looking at four times that many leaves your eyes and brain spinning.

But that's just the way it goes. Not every top effort brings success. The best big league baseball player rarely gets on base more than four times out of ten. He scores a run something like less than 1 out of 15. When you count balls that he swings at and misses, that ratio probably drops to 1 out of 30.

Another reason artists are rejected when their work is up to par is that they fail to follow directions adequately.( I'm not saying that was true in your case, but it is something to be especially aware of.) Thus, their work never even gets seen by the jury. It is disqualified and the entry fee is kept. From the artist's point of view, this is unfair. But the organization simply doesn't have the time to deal with making the corrections or figuring out what the artist meant to do. And they can't take the chance of changing something, because the change might negatively affect the artist's entry and they would, rightly, be held responsible for it. So you always have to double check -- maybe even triple check -- the prospectus and what you are entering.

In general, entering juried shows should be approached as a learning experience, not a one-time stab. What kinds of shows do you do best with? What kinds of jurors (teachers, active artists, curators, painters, photographers, etc.). What particular jurors? Keep records and review them often.

And, good luck, always.

Vanity Gallery ICO Holds Another "Contest"

2010-01-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

Ico Gallery, a business in NYC, runs various, "contests." Their latest, Emerging Artist Competition (Star Search), is run as part of one of their sites, ArtiFacTorYNYC. Entry is free. Winners "will be given the opportunity to be included in a collective exhibition at Ico Gallery's ground floor Chelsea gallery." One winner will be "given the opportunity to exhibit at Ico Galley during our 2010-2011 calendar." Implies a solo show, but could be anything. In any case, it is the opportunity to pay for it that you win, not the thing itself.

And what does "opportunity to be included" mean? Why, it means, that for a substantial fee -- $200-400, according to one artist who contacted us -- you will have your work shown along wlth others who either have plenty of money to burn or have no idea how the real art world works. So entry is free but acceptance is very expensive.

Ico Gallery twice tried to have AOM list their contest for free by falsely claiming on our submission form that they are a non-profit organization -- instead of paying $6/line for a classified ad. When I wrote to ask if accepted artists were charged to show their work, I got only the curt reply, "All of the information can be found on the contest rules page."

Indeed it can. Almost. But it is written in a way intended to mislead the inexperienced and recognition-needy. "Given the opportunity to be included" is not the same as included. I wonder if they are also offering the "opportunity to include the Brooklyn Bridge as one of your most prized possessions."

One good way to recognize a vanity gallery is to look at the work shown. Almost without exception, the work is not professional quality. Also, there are usually fairly prominent pictures of the individual artists. They tend to be of a certain type, although I cannot articulate it. I'm waiting for someone to do a series of portraits of people who routinely show their work in vanity galleries. To complete the concept, should the results be shown in a vanity gallery?

PDF to DOC

2009-12-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

AOM is published as a PDF because: 1) that format allows the content to appear the same on any system; 2) not every system has all the software to read other formats but Adobe Reader is free and simple to get; 3) the filesize is much smaller than it would be in, say Word; and, last but not least 4) Adobe Reader has an excellent and sophisticated search system. More about all this at http://www.artopportunitiesmonthly.com/PDF_instructions.

Nevertheless, some reader prefer AOM as a Word file, probably because they are more familiar with that program. An excellent freeware program to convert the .PDF to a .DOC is Free PDF to Word Doc Converter (http://www.hellopdf.com/download.php).

Overproduced Artist Sites

2009-12-18T12:05:00.000-08:00

During the past few years, I have looked at thousands of artists' sites. The least successful in my opinion are those that are the least straightforward. Such sites are often built with Flash and require the viewer to spend time waiting for things to load. While those are loading, the viewer gets to look at a progress bar which shows the percentage already loaded. Although the amount of time for each message is not really that long, the cumulative effect is that the viewer is more likely to be left with an impression of that progress bar than with the work itself. It's as though you were telling a story and before each line said:"OK, here is the next sentence."

This is not the reason the sites are problematic, it's merely one of the symptoms. Artists understandably want to sell their work, but if the site looks more like an on-line store, with constant references to shopping carts or an exercise to show off a website designer's bag of tricks, it is likely to annoy serious viewers and drive them away in less time than it takes a progress bar to finish.

Responding to Open Deadline Calls

2009-08-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

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.

Phoenix Library Gallery not Accepting Proposals Now

2009-06-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

@Central Gallery, located on the First Floor of Burton Barr Central Library in Phoenix AZ, presents fine art exhibitions featuring the work of emerging and established Arizona artists. Proposals are not being accepted at this time. Submission instructions for exhibition in 2010 will be posted in July 2009.

A Book About Death Mail Art Call

2009-06-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

OPEN ARTIST CALL : A BOOK ABOUT DEATH
A BOOK ABOUT DEATH: AN UNBOUND BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF DEATH

Opening, Thursday, 10 September 2009.

Exhibition: 10 - 22 September 2009. Emily Harvey Foundation 537 Broadway New York City, New York 10012 USA

1000 Artists Each Produce Their Edition Of 500 Postcards In The Sprawling Unbound 1000-Page A Book About Death. The Book Will Be A Limited Edition: 500 Copies (Following The Number Of Artist Produced Cards).

An Open Call To Artists Worldwide To Contribute To A BOOK ABOUT DEATH.

A BOOK ABOUT DEATH is an open, unbound book produced by artists worldwide. Artists are invited to create a "page" in the form of a postcard about death– any aspect about death. Works can be of any design, personal or conceptual, color or black and white.

The original work about death stays with you, the artist; the 500 postcards produced from the work is for the exhibition, and are sent to the gallery.

Artists can include any information about themselves on the cards, front or back.

The 500 post cards are then mailed to the gallery in New York City for exhibition. DEADLINE FOR CARDS TO BE IN THE GALLERY: SEPTEMBER 5, 2009.

Details here

Call for Work Made with Light

2009-05-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

Annmarie Garden, an affiliate of The Smithsonian Institution, has issued a call for entries:

A winter exhibit of work with the medium (neon, fiber optics, LED, luminous substances, light graffiti, projections, etc) or subject of light, including large to small scale installations, completed or proposed.

Deadline Oct 2. No fee.

Fewer Calls to Artists

2009-05-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

There are definitely few calls compared to a year ago at this time. We keep a database of several thousand organizations we have dealt with during the past 10 or more years. The first thing we do when preparing for an issue of AOM is to check the sites of those whose calls we published 12 months previously. A very few sites have have disappeared, a few are still up but clearly haven't been touched in several months and may still be showing last year's call.. Several have messages such as "Please check back to this page beginning January, 2009, for our 2009-10 Call to Artist Information," even though it is now the end of May.

In many cases this lack of action is because of funding cuts, in others, because of the fear of them. Most art centers get a substantial part of their funding from their local governments. In the US, art is seen as "enrichment" -- something that may make life more pleasant but which is not important -- rather than a serious endeavor which can ultimately alter a culture, hence one of the first things to go when budget cuts seem in order.

In many cities and states in the US, as well as in Australia, most of Europe, and in major Canadian cities, percent-for-art programs mandate that 1/2 to 2 percent of the cost of a publicly-funded building or major renovation project be spent on art. The advantage of this system is that funding cannot be cut off through normal budget cuts but would have to be done via new legislation such as was unsuccessfully tried by a Washington state senator. The disadvantage is of course that when there are fewer such projects, there are fewer public art commissions. The real impact of a slowdown might not be seen for a while, as most such building projects are planned and funded long before actual work starts.

George Sugarman Foundation Drops Artist Grant Program

2009-05-23T18:23:00.000-07:00

The George Sugarman Foundation is no longer offering grants to individual artists but will "continue to serve the wishes of George Sugarman through the donation of his artworks to institutions, museums and universities throughout the United States.

The last artist to receive a grant was AOM subscriber John E. Stallings. More of Stallings's work is on his site.

Calls for Public Art Trending Toward Local Restrictions

2009-05-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

Compared to two years ago, a greater percentage of calls for public art RFQs or RFPs are being restricted to artists living within the state the call originates in. Sometimes they are limited to those within a region and sometimes within a city itself. As a general rule, those limited to a city are normally those with smaller budgets or which deal specifically with the history of the city.

A certain amount of this territorial restriction is -- territorial. It comes from artists and their supporters pressuring the issuing agencies to "keep the money at home."

Steve Fairfield has been keeping us up to date on the goings-on in Washington state, where Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, first sponsored a bill to eliminate mandatory funding of public art. According to Hobbs: "I respectfully disagree with members of the arts community who feel the Art in Public Places program should be sacrosanct. What message are we sending to struggling middle-class families across our state when we force our agencies to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on art while our children’s favorite teachers are being handed pink slips?" He continued: "I am not an opponent of the arts, merely a proponent of common sense public policy that reflects the values of most of the people in this state."

He apparently assumes his constituents -- and artists -- don't understand a budget, whether personal, business or legislative always represents priorities; the higher the dollar amount, the higher the priority. Zero dollars = zero priority = not interested.

When that bill failed, Hobbs pushed a bill to limit the funds to artists living within the state. It got enough support from artists and their state representatives that It passed. On May 15, Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed the bill.

"I'm disappointed," Hobbs said. "I was just trying to help more artists in the state of Washington."

At least he wasn't using art as a political football. He would never do that. Nor would any other politician.

FAQ Double Icon Problem Solved, Tips Also Up

2009-05-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

Double icon problem fixed at AOM FAQ. More tweaking later. Please let me know about anything that needs correcting or if you think of any questions/answers that should be up there.

The Tips page is also up in its beta stage. Since this is made up of various bits and pieces of AOM cover letters of about the past two or three years years, there is a certain amount of repetition. Tried to bring things up to date and did a fair amount of pruning but more probably needed. Let me know if you see anything that needs more work.

Bedford Gallery Opening

2009-05-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

There's a post over at The Cranky Artist that's worth reading. We published the Bedford Gallery's call to artists for this show, but are not too happy about having done so.

First Notes, May 09 Issue

2009-05-05T17:08:00.000-07:00

As promised, some notes about the most recent issue, May 09:

The Art Center in Corvallis OR seems to be out of business and the domain name, http://www.theartcenter.net, is for sale.

Abstract EXPOsure is what I call a contest site. It's not really a gallery, just an online presence that collects money from artists who want to gamble $30 or more that they will win $200 against possibly hundreds of competitors. I don't know how many entries AE gets, but if it gets only seven, it's made its "nut." If everything about this site is completely legitimate, and I'm not suggesting it's not, it's still a bad deal. There are a handful of other places like this, a few of them run by a computer science instructor in Colorado. The fact is anyone with moderate Web building skills, or access to someone who has, can set up an online gallery and hold a contest.

The "Florence Biennale" is at it again. This is strictly a vanity venue. Anyone who pays the fee can get in. It is cleverly marketed, in that it fools the kind of people who are easily fooled. One thing they do -- an old trick, actually -- is give awards to prominent artists. It doesn't mean the big name artists are present at the show or even know about it. It simply means that the producers, two brothers who own a commercial art studio in Florence, can use the names in their promotion. Your local art club -- or bridge club or Cub Scout Troop -- could do the same thing. But probably won't.

This year, the "invitation" from FB to artists is at least candid enough to state: "The exhibition is entirely funded by artists, that can search for sponsors independently in their own country." (This language probably added as a result of a law suit or threatened suit.) The sad thing is that in years past I have seen small countries and local law firms dish out money to sponsor their local artists who had been invited, not knowing that the invitations were the email equivalent of the old letters stating "You may already have won!!!" on the envelope. But "Florence Biennale" sounds so much better than, say "West Podunk Biennale," doesn't it? But they would otherwise be essentially the same thing. So hopeful, naive and needy people are fooled. A few years ago, I did some calculations on how much it would cost an artist to show and be present. Something in excess of $10,000 the figure was, especially since the FB strongly recommended its own shippers. For that amount you could promote you work in a much effective way. Or set up your own Biennale.

Further elucidation of the AOM ratings system: The "Editor's choices" are marked with |+| because I think they give an especially good value or are prestigious or are different and interesting. Everything is not about money. Those marked ~ (tilde) are pretty much ones that I didn't feel justified in leaving out but which really didn't seem to be good value. Basically, that means that their entry fees didn't seem to justify their awards, which were often non-existet. Nevertheless, I included them because they might be near enough to some subscriber to be worth looking into.

In once case I remember I upgraded a listing after a representative of the show -- of miniatures -- pointed out that although they didn't give much in the way of prizes, the tiny works were very cheap for the artists to ship and judging was directly from the work, so slides, CDs and cameras didn't have to enter into the equation.

Well, that's the start. Open for questions.