February Jury: “Mix It Up”

For the first three blog posts of this month, I’ve been writing about the jury process in our gallery. All of the photos I used as illustrations came from our January 10, 2011 jury day. At the end of the last post, I said, “And guess what? We’ll do it all over again next month!” Sure enough, we did.

Tuesday, February 15, was jury day again in our gallery. The show theme, “Mix It Up,” encouraged gallery members to use two or more different fiber techniques in their work.

After each jurying, the jurors select “Jurors’ Choice” items. We don’t have prizes, but we do put a nice, shiny gold sticker on the wall next to each selected piece.

Here are the Jurors’ Choice awardees for the Mix It Up show:

This fabulous vest (above) is a made in a technique called "freeform crochet." It would look terrific on any model in the Fashion Week shows in New York City this week. The artist is Elida de Souza Moore.

Artist Floris Flam uses monoprinting and stitching to create this softly meditative wall quilt (left), entitled “Blue Hills.” It would be perfect for a nice yoga corner in someone’s home.

Paige Garber is the artist who created this eye-popping wall hanging (right), “Cosmic Confluence,” which incorporates felt-making, stitching, applique, and other techniques. Put it in the entrance hall to your home to give your guests a warm welcome.

In addition to selecting Jurors’ Choice pieces, the jurors for each show write a statement about the show as a whole. Here’s what jurors Ann Liddle and Carol Holmes wrote about “Mix It Up”:

“This was both a difficult and easy theme. Using a variety of fibers and techniques is common among our members. Even so, some lovely examples of mixed techniques and fibers were submitted. We especially liked the color and stitch explosion of Elida's vest, the monoprinting and stitching techniques in Floris' quilt, and the lively but delicately balanced felting and stitching in Paige's wall hanging.”

Jurying vs. Judging

The question has arisen as to what is the difference between jurying and judging. Some artistic disciplines use the terms interchangeably. Others, for example in the world of art quilts, maintain a careful distinction. “Jurying” is the process of deciding whether a piece is admitted to a given show. “Judging” is reserved for deciding which pieces in a given show should be given awards.

To take our gallery’s February show, Mix It Up, as an example: all of the pieces submitted for the show were juried. Most were accepted; a few were rejected. The three pieces pictured above were selected (judged) from all of the theme pieces to be awarded Jurors’ Choice recognition.

Next Post

For my final February post (before I turn the blog over to Larry for March), I’ll be writing about the Travels of a Fiber Lover: how I go about finding fiber shops, what kinds of interesting fiber art I see in other countries, and how the work of other cultures influences what I do.

The Jury Process: Part I

“Any good juried show begins by assembling bright, enthusiastic, and resourceful people. . . . The key ingredients are a sense of adventure and mission, balanced by a pragmatic approach to budgeting and grunt work.” Susan Eckenwalder, The Trials of Jurying: A Guide for Organizers and Jurors, Ontario Crafts Council, 1989

Each month, this blog has a new guest editor. My name is Ruth Blau, I’m a member of the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery, and I’m primarily a weaver. However, like many fiber artists, I do other things as well. I dye (cloth and yarn), spin, knit, sew, do bead crochet, and do the Japanese braiding technique called kumihimo. I’m your blog writer for February.

The Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery is located in the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia (TF). Under TF rules, we must jury in a minimum of 10 new shows per year. Jurying is a fact of life for all artists—those who work in fine art as well as we who work in fine craft—who wish to exhibit their work.

In the case of some exhibits and shows, jurying is carried out by submission of slides or photos on CD. In the case of our gallery, we judge each hand-crafted item separately and in person.

Guest judge Diane and gallery judge Betty inspect jewelry item submitted by a gallery member for the January show

The gallery has a jury committee made up of eight gallery members. Each year, four members rotate off and four new members join the committee. Every show is judged by two jurors—but not always two jurors from our own jury committee. Under TF rules, five of our shows each year must be judged by an outside juror, someone who is not a member of our jury committee and is also not an artist-in-residence at the TF. Our outside judges are people who live in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area and who are recognized fine craft artists in fiber: weavers, art quilters, felt-makers, fine-craft knitters, and so forth.

All artists (fine art and fine craft) must at one time or another submit their work to be juried if they wish to participate in shows or exhibits. For some, it’s a painful process (the work isn’t accepted into the show), but for others, it’s a growth process. What didn’t the judges like about this piece? Did the piece not fit the show criteria? Or did the artist not execute the piece well enough to qualify? If the latter, how can the piece be improved?

Here’s an interesting article by a painter who has had her work judged and has served as a judge. While we artists are licking our wounds from having our work rejected from a show, we’re not often thinking about the agony the judge goes through in deciding whether to accept a piece. Katie Lee, the author of this article, reminds us that jurying can be a painful process on both sides of the jury table—and also an opportunity for growth as an artist.

Next blog post: We empty out the gallery and check in the items for the new show before handing them over to the jurors.