Rant 58: The Art Lottery

I've rarely applied to anything with fees though I have on occasion paid a participation fee when the project is unfunded, whcih I think is fair enough and am happy to do that. But I have seen friends pay out large sums and then get the standard "sorry we had too many applicants" letter. I just don't recommend this - you are throwing money down the toilet.

I think that application fees have their place in certain cases, but it should be clear what you are getting for that fee. And it's interesting how suddenly everyone is doing it, like they figured out there is money to be made. I for one am not willing to pay a fee so someone just out of art school or "curating college" assesses my work, but I might do if it was someone well known and well respected.

I don't think it's right that a "curator" make money from fees. If they are talented they should be able to sell the work and so get paid from that, or attract a good commission. Surely they must teach them that in these "curating colleges."

Currently running an unfunded  artist-run space, we decided not to charge for submissions but only ask participants to contribute to the running costs. So far we're only working with people we know but I hope this system can work.

I think we probably go into the hall of shame for admitting this too but we have paid money to enter work for exhibitions most years since leaving art school. We have a limit of aprox £50 per year that we put asside for this purpose, and we think extremely hard about which opportunities to go for - what the chances of being sellected are, who is doing sellecting, and whether there are hand in days that will require one of us to travel and spend half a day queuing (not an option ever) or whether we will have to rely on the good will of others. We also take into account whether we will have to shell out more money for refreshments or other expenses and additional hanging fees if successful. Increasingly we find that free opportunities have more appeal and fortunately for us more are also coming our way.

I dislike the idea of supporting any kind of exploitation but on  the other hand it's a hard time to be a curator or to be running a small gallery too and if this initial fee enables curators to take work to exciting places, and supports the gallery owner's desire to take risks with more experimental/ less commercial work then so be it. For the bigger ones such as the John Moores I have less sympathy but I have always imagined that they use the fee to pay for getting big names on their juries and for their often substantial prizes. Anyone large, publicly funded organisation that rejects us will get something darkly humorous back by email as part of our research into the concept and nature of rejection.

Thanks for your comments Gillian. Asking participants to contribute to running costs at an artist-run space sounds absolutely fair enough, at least they know they are definately getting something in return rather than just sending money off into the unknown!

Maya

Hi Tumim & Prendergast,

Thanks for your message. I've also found that the free opportunities are often the more interesting ones, I guess because generally they are more well established and of high enough quality to have secured some of that scarce outside funding.

I have sympathy with the legitimate small galleries/curators & I understand that the funding cuts mean that inevitably artists are having to pick up the slack through application fees otherwise many exhibitions won't happen. Having worked in a small, unfunded gallery I know the costs involved in putting on exhibitions and the hand to mouth existance many of them run on- for the love of it as appose to profit, which I very much respect. There are many opportunities advertise though that are clearly geared towards making money as appose to making exhibitions and an automatic rejection may aswell be added onto the bottom of your paypal receipt. As far as some of the big guys are concerned..the vast numbers of applicants entrance fees far outweigh prize money and even paying the jury footballer's wages. They then want to charge me £10 to see the exhibition that I partly funded??  

Recently I received a flattering email from an American magazine asking for further information about a specific artwork of mine and inviting me to be in exhibitions in New York and Beijing..for a while my dreams had come true..but keep scrolling down I told myself..there will be numbers..$3100 no less..Dream on curators! A search on their website revealed group shows of 25 artists, each paying $3100 to exhibit one small artwork, plus their own return shipping costs and insurance. Desperate times indeed.

I totally agree with you Maya - that is so sad. I would rather show work in our garden shed or even in a teenage son's bedroom than pay that kind of money to exhibit anywhere - (and then of course the pong of hormones and the many discarded and molding items would then be a source of inspiration too!). But on a serious note some artists obviously don't see it like this otherwise the curators, magazines and galleries wouldn't go to the lengths they do to bandy about the nectar. It makes us feel very fortunate not to be desperate in these hard times - but because we are not actively searching for opportunities we have been blithely unaware of how many exploitative ones there are around or how many artists must be desperate enough to try and raise the cash to pay to exhibit. It's good at least that many artists are  grouping together to form collectives and help each other and themselves more than ever - and this is the direction we tend to focus on. One of the blessings of being an artist is how resourceful it makes you. Thanks for flagging this up though.

I concur with this rant. I trawl through the axis opportunities page every so often and when I did this last week the only things I found had a fee attached.

Having applied to these kind of shows a few times now, I don't think its worth the investment. If they provided actual feedback then it would go some way to making the cost seem like less of a blatant money making scheme.

Many thanks T & P. When I left my MA they told us that we would have to form collectives and put on our own shows inorder to survive in these trying times & I guess thats the best way to fight back against exploitation, at least that way you know exactly where the moneys going! All the best, Maya. 

Hi Maya, This is a really interesting question & the comments reflect the wide variety of financial options & problems in funding exhibitions right now. I'm not sure I have a strong opinion on this yet, but am about to start a 12-month internship with an artist-led space that recently received substantial public funding (in the USA). One of the things I will be most curious about is this issue of recruiting artists and paying for shows. The space (http://voxpopuligallery.org) is run by members who apply with portfolio on a rolling basis, pay a membership subscription if accepted, and then have a strong say in how the gallery works. I'd love to set up a space like this myself eventually and hope to train in how to do it in the next year. Being transparent about where the money goes is essential if a gallery/curator is to build up trust with artists.

Good point Danielle. Often they say the fee is to cover admin costs, how about proving it by providing feedback? I've applied for things where I didn't even get the courtesy of a rejection..so I have no idea whether anyone ever looked at my application or not, I just know that they banked my money!     

I am 75 years old. I am, and never have been, much cop at wheeling and dealing. If an opportunity arises in whatever guise, I look at the bottom line. If it costs me to submit and/or exhibit my work before any possible sales  take place I will not have any truck with it. To me that would be akin to  funding and publishing privately, a slim volume of poetry in order to cosset my own ego.  As a result I am sometimes accused by my family and friends that I am cutting off my nose to spite my face. That said - I have worked according to my own lights for decades. I am beholden to no-one but myself. I have done what I wish to do. At the end of it, if someone else should like it, buy it, praise it or 'anything else' it - then that is a bonus. The whole point for me is doing it. Maybe I should have found a good agent many moons ago.

Patrick Caseley

 this space and the way it works sounds really interesting. Itr would be great if you will write about it - maybe a blog? I agree it would be good to have spaces like this here.

I wrote a long letter regarding this subject that was published in a-n magazine last year. As an artist who has entered open submissions and as a manager of an artist led gallery space (Core Gallery, is a not for profit space), which held its first open submission.
Graham Crowley one of our selectors for the competition sums up succinctly why it is important to have independent competitions:

“Independent competitions are vital in providing a platform for work that isn’t being shown by commercial or public galleries. This becomes more important as the market seems to exert an increasing influence on public galleries.”
I completely agree that submission fees to competitions have inflated to
ridiculous prices. Saatchi Gallery recently held an open submission ‘The Art of Giving…’ £25 per artist is something of an ironic joke given the title.

I would suggest that one just enters those competitions you firmly believe in or
want to be part of and feel you have a fair chance in applying to it. There is a glut out there for good or bad but they do serve an important purpose on many levels of getting exposure for artists and galleries need money to run their spaces too I am afraid to say.

http://coregallery.co.uk/assets/core-gallery/Press-Releases-documents/a-n.nov0001.pdf

Hi Gillian - blogging my internship is a good idea - I'll have a think of how that would work and let you know if I do it.

I've always accepted that in the race of life there can only be a few winners but without most of us having a go there would be no race and life would be boring and idle.

I send off to my particular choice of fee paying art competitions to help maintain events/places close to my heart, ie The Tabernacl Art Competition in Machynlleth, Welsh Artist of the Year, RCA, Oriel Caffi Croesor and the National Eisteddfod.

I exhibit regularly but this is so expensive that you do not even cover your costs and as I am not one of the Art Council funded minority I have yet to make a profit as a self employed artist!

It is most surely a murky world. Full of variation as well. I do pay application fees from time to time but it really does depend on the exhibition. Not just if I think I might get in, but also how well my work fits to the theme or concept (and how interesting I find the concept), where it is (because you can be sure I'm going to be paying petrol and transport costs) location and respectability of the gallery and probably a million other things I can't think of right now, all weighed against the cost of submission.

The shame is that many of the big shows that charge some of the more ridiculous fees (RA summer exhibition comes to mind) might be highly respectable but I honestly feel like a stand a cat in hells chance of actually getting in. Frankly some of the more high profile and interesting exhibitions/events in my CV were lacking fees.

I'm happier paying a little to be part of an artist or community run space when I already know I'm in. 

You've got to laugh at some of the emails I get from America, encouraging me to go on the books of some supposedly high level gallery but which will charge me $845 to exhibit in their group show (not including international delivery charges) or the book publishers who will put you in as long as you purchase two copies of the book at £70 each. A few years ago I might have been tempted (young and innocent that I was) but I never had (nor have now) the kind of finances to even consider it.

Hi Becky,

That sounds interesting that the members will have a say in how the gallery works. Having worked in galleries I can guess where the money is going when the galleries are small and unfunded but it certainly would help to know where our application fees are going where the big name funded galleries are concerned. Good luck with your internship!

Maya 

Many thanks for your contribution Patrick, I admire your tenacity! Would you say that kind of sensibility is a generational thing? I'm guessing artists didn't used to be charged left, right and centre for the honour of exhibiting, or potentially exhibiting. I remember when I was small there even used to be subsidised housing for artists..

Maya 

Many thanks for your message Rosalind. I absolutely understand that galleries need money to run shows..I just have issue with those that are milking it for more than it's worth. For example, I'm not convinced that the Royal Academy really need my application fee inorder to run the exhibition. They are making between £325,000 and £650,000 on application fees (depending on whether you enter one piece or two) added to the £500,000 revenue from entrance tickets..to put on a show in a building that they own?? I was highly commended for the summer show last year but just felt too ripped off to enter this year..

Maya

Hi Jones the Art,

Thanks for your message. I like the idea of supporting places that actually need it via your application fee. Profit as an artist?? Thats a subject worthy of a whole other rant!

Maya

Thanks for your message Gemma. Long may the low earnings of artists continue to stop them falling prey to such scams!

Maya 

Not sure what I think about the smaller gallery using artists to fund a trip to Venice with light weight artworks (next to no haulage costs) but it's all gris to the mill for us I suppose. I've uploaded the latest rejection piece now - for which honour (a nameless email with no logo to draw or embroider!) we paid the handsome sum of £25 via paypal.

Here's the relevant email (name cut out in case I'm libelling them?!). Thanks Maya for making this into a very frank and courageous Rant topic.

"Dear Venice Biennale Open Call 2011 Entrant,

Thank you very much for entering this year's open call. The curators have now made their final decision and I am afraid that on this occasion your work was not selected for exhibition. This year there were hundreds of entries, and 63 works (many more than we had intended) were finally selected for exhibition from the open call.

The standard was very high, making it extremely difficult for the selectors, and this has added to the slight delay in getting this news to you, for which we apologise. We wish you the very best with your continued practice and would encourage you to consider applying to our opportunities again in the future.

Kind regards,

---------------

Admin assistant"

Would you delve into the murky world of dismissing Real Artist and Deleting there efforts to correct the Art World.it is just so wrong how these dim minded people get to say yay or nah . I  am a real Artist and You Are all In My Way.