ARTWISE

ART SHOW AND FAIR ETIQUETTE

An expert shares his advice for managing eight sticky situations.

——— BY DANIEL GRANT ———

Juried art shows and fairs have their own etiquette, and, like much of what passes for good manners, a lot of it is arbitrary. Does it really matter if you set the soup spoon to the right of the plate? The fact that there is no Emily Post-style standardization among the thousands of shows and fairs taking place annually around the United States means that artists must tailor their own sense of right and wrong to conform to the rules of this or that event.

One rule on which there is general agreement, however, is that artists should not substitute another work for the piece that was submitted to an admissions jury. The desire to make a substitution may come about when an artist sells a juried piece before the show begins. Months pass between when artists apply to be in an event and when the event actually takes place, and not all collectors will allow the works they bought to be part of a show, putting the artist in a bind. Should they hold off on a sale, withdraw from the show, or see if the show sponsor will accept something else? It’s a real dilemma, but artwork is not interchangeable, and a work that is submitted for an exhibition should be available. Sales may have to wait.

Another point on which most would agree is that the same work should not be submitted to two or more shows taking place at the same time. If the artist’s work is accepted into more than one show, it means another artist’s work was rejected, and the show sponsors may have to scramble to fill an empty space if you withdraw due to double booking.

Even in cases where there is no overlap of shows, the work an artist submits can be a cause

Nathan Brandner from Green Bay, Wisconsin, paints under a jewelry shop awning during June’s Paint Cedarburg. (Photo by Robert M. Powell) In June, festival-goers gathered for the 32nd Annual Manayunk Arts Festival in Philadelphia. (Photo by J. Fusco)

Richie Vios poses with the local couple who bought his painting Cedarburg Mill, which took third place at Paint Cedarburg. Willard Watson III, Programs & Outreach Director of Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, paints outdoors to draw attention to the upcoming Blowing Rock Plein Air Festival in western North Carolina.

Monika Gupta won two awards in the novice category at Paint the Town: Alpharetta Plein Air. Former PleinAir Magazine editor-in-chief Steve Doherty was spotted in rural coastal Virginia at the Gloucester Arts Festival.

of contention. For example, someone may choose to enter a favorite work in many shows over the course of a year or even several years, which will likely irritate other artists and show sponsors who are unhappy at seeing the same piece again and again. To encourage artists to submit new work, many show sponsors require all work submitted to have been created within the past two or three years, in part because they want their shows to have a different look every year for the public. Newness, of course, is not an artistic criterion, and the public does not travel the show circuit as artists do and are unlikely to see the work repeatedly. But good etiquette in the art world is often a mixture of principle and the assumed needs of the market.

One issue an artist should never fudge on is the medium or mediums used. Some watercolor shows, for instance, accept acrylics and gouaches, even pen-and-ink drawings with a watercolor wash, while others are adamant about taking only transparent watercolors. The digital file an artist submits for a painting may be accepted by a judge or jury, but the actual artwork will be evaluated again when it is received for the event; if some opaque or white paint is discovered, the piece will be rejected. The rules may seem arbitrary, but those are the rules, and artists should not knowingly submit work that goes against a sponsor’s stated aim.

While most show and fair sponsors earn their money from visitor admissions, concessions, and booth or entry fees, some also take a commission on sales occurring at the event. In some instances, collectors are required to purchase works through the show sponsor rather than through the artist, but most shows rely on an honor system. The artist tells the sponsor what he or she sold and pays a commission (usually 10 or 20, sometimes 30 percent). Frequently, when a commission is charged, the sponsor is able to lower booth fees for artists or eliminate jurying fees. Moving the financial underpinnings of a show from up-front money (fees paid by artists) to money earned (through sales of artwork) requires more of the sponsor to promote the event and bring in likely buyers. This shift should be encouraged by honesty on the part of participating artists.

A gray area in show etiquette may arise when a show or fair sponsor requires that participating artists donate a work, perhaps for an auction, a door prize, or for the sponsor’s permanent collection (when the sponsor is an art institution). But which work? Should a painter contribute a painting, a print, or even a sketch? Must the donation be representative of the artist’s best-known work or will any piece do? Often, the prospectus does not indicate what the donation should be, and artists are left with an ethical decision — give away the type of work that got them into the show or donate something small or inexpensive (or both). Probably, the latter option makes the most sense, especially if a donated piece is to be used as a door prize.

Frequently, show sponsors require that artists put a price on work they are submitting for jurying. But if awards have been won, works sold, or rave reviews published by the time of the actual show, an artist may want a higher price. This change could be accommodated in a gallery situation but is likely to cause hardship to a show sponsor who has printed up hundreds or thousands of brochures with prices noted in them. The Massachusetts-based Cambridge Art Association, for its part, informs artists that “prices/values submitted with artwork cannot change upon acceptance.” Ideally, show sponsors would not put artists in the position of losing money and scrap the pre-show pricing requirement. In lieu of that, artists should adhere to the prices originally set.

Some shows also require that every work on display be for sale, which may be attractive to visitors but not to artists, who may not want to sell works with personal meaning to them, or for which they have a ready buyer (or may even have sold already). They also may want to have the piece available for another show. A not uncommon — and not technically ethical — solution for artists is to give the piece an overly high price ($10,000, for example, whereas it otherwise would go for $1,500) in order to discourage buyers and get around the not-for-sale problem. Other show sponsors set price limits for works on display, which again is appealing to visitors but can cause hardship for artists who could charge more at other shows. Placed in such ethical binds, artists must choose between irritating the sponsors or hurting their own career opportunities. Perhaps the best advice for artists is to read each show’s prospectus carefully, then determine a course of action based on the rules the sponsor has established. The simple solution: don’t enter shows and fairs that make unpalatable demands.

DANIEL GRANT is the author of The Business of Being an Artist and other books published by Skyhorse Press.