Most folks don’t know the difference between these two J words; most people don’t need to know.
Many artists don’t know either, but artists who want to participate in shows need to know.
Juried
This means, “We might let you into our show or we might not. Don’t call us; we might call you, IF we deem your work worthy of our Mighty Event.”
Judged
Judging results in this: “Her piece is the best; we liked his better but it didn’t fit the categories so we gave it First Place instead of Best of Show. Yours is pretty decent, so here’s an Honorable Mention.”
Juried and/or Judged
Some shows are juried because they have standards; some shows are juried because they have limited space; some shows are juried for both reasons.
Some shows are judged because ribbons or prize money might bring in more artists and/or better sales. (I think ribbons make good bookmarks.)
Judging is extremely subjective, even when there are guidelines that the entrants are supposed to have followed. I watched a judging demonstration once, where the audience got to see the give-and-take that happens among the judges. Because of this negotiation and trading of favorites, an ugly piece got first place. I found it to be disappointing, but it certainly explained why award selections at art shows seldom make sense.
The lesson was helpful, and pushed me to decide to not participate in most of those types of shows. My work is for my customers, regular people rather than those in the Art World Who Know Better Than Most.
Gotta admit though, it is nice when one of those folks acknowledges my work. Still, it is better when I can satisfy customers.
Using pencils, oil paints, and murals, I make art that people can understand of places and things they love, for prices that won’t scare them.
(I’d rather get a check or cash than another bookmark: a satisfied customer is the best reward.)
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7 Comments
That was a great personal comment on juried shows, yes they can be strange and funny!
Hi Janet, Good to hear from you! It is seldom that the best pieces get the highest awards, and it is reassuring to hear that other artists have noticed the same phenomenon.
“My work is for my customers, regular people rather than those in the Art World Who Know Better Than Most.” And that’s why We Who Know What We Like appreciate and love your art!
Sharon, people who “don’t know art but know what they like” are my kind of peeps!
There’s an interesting corollary to this in the music world. Someone who is totally tone deaf and knows nothing about music theory yet knows when a musical group is “off” somehow, whether in pitch, or a bad arrangement, or wrong notes played, etc. They may not be scholars and unable to tell exactly what’s off, but their ears know when it’s just not right. And they’re usually correct!
That is really interesting, Sharon! A Ted Talk by Ben Zander touches on this “tone deaf” thing, saying that no one is truly tone deaf. If they were, they wouldn’t be able to tell when someone was angry on the phone or hear when it is time to shift gears in a manual transmission car.
The musical definition “tone-deaf” (or “monotone”) is someone whose connection between what he hears and what he sings is irrevocably broken. So if you play the first line of “Joy to the World” on piano, and he sings every note way off, but *thinks* he is singing accurately, he is truly tone-deaf. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot distinguish or match tones.
In your world, it’s equivalent of being totally color blind. He may guess that object which looks gray to him is red, but the object actually may be yellow. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot distinguish colors.
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