A professor, a curator and an artist walk into an art show. No, it's not the setup for a bad joke. It's the perfect formula for a panel of judges, at least according to most judges and promoters. And it's not a bad combination according to most exhibitors, either, although artists tend to value the input of other artists over academics.
Exhibitor preferences
Artists' desires are really quite simple. They want a panel of qualified judges who are unbiased, unaffiliated with the show they are judging, familiar with the mediums on display and prepared to spend a reasonable amount of time in each booth.
"The judge shouldn't act as if he or she is above the artists being judged," says SA's Joan Tweedell, an artist who works predominantly in pottery and watercolor painting. "This happens sometimes with academics who scorn the work they are judging and make their attitude obvious to us. I'll never forget seeing two prominent local university judges strolling down the aisle at a top-rated show, making individual comments about the work in the booths they were passing (and not entering) and laughing at their clever remarks. At the very least, the judges should treat us with respect."
Tweedell also says she prefers shows that have two or more judges, both with different areas of expertise, and that view is shared by all the other artists I spoke with. And at the very least, artists say, judges should know how to spot buy/sell.
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