Calls for Art (are a waste of money) | ARTISTS BEWARE
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.ค. 2024
- / catgraffam
In this new Artists Beware video I talk all about calls for art & juried exhibitions and why I believe they aren't worth your money. SPORTS. (sorry there is weird blurring around the 12 min mark, just pretend you are a nerdy girl in a movie that just removed their glasses to show everyone how hot they are)
~Links~
Twitter: / catgraffam
Instagram: / catherinegraffam
Shop: catherinegraffam.com/shop
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction/My Background
3:03 Part 1: How They Work
14:30 Part 2: The Purpose
18:09 Part 3: They Aren't Worth It
26:10 Tips for Submitting to Stuff
28:50 Part 4: Alternatives
32:24 Ending - บันเทิง
"it's like you paid money to apply for a job that never paid you" TRUE. I hate how expensive these things are and how they prey on people who are just starting their careers and are often strapped for cash. It's gross.
27:51 has me CACKLING holy shit, hands down you're the funniest art youtuber, we stan a queen
It sounds like a mlm
If you have to pay, it's not a legit job offer. Frankly if you have to pay, you are being scammed, whether it's an art expo, a job offer, what have you. The only exception to this is vendor's fees to set up a booth and sell your art/wares at a craft fair or similar event. Asking for money should be a huge red flag for anything else.
agreed. that description of yours also sounds like the film industry, of BOTH the normal AND adult varieties.
Don't apply unless your art is good enough that people will buy it
One time I had an elder ask to buy my art and when I told her my price she not only said no but called me a hustler / scammer or something and I was SO hurt. In fact I still am but I'll live obviously. Thankfully the one (free) gallery I applied a quilt to I got in and they even kept it an extra month in one of their halls and a friend of mine bought it so I know I'm not delusional.
awe glad it worked out with the one gallery, do you happened to have a Instagram for your quilts/art? I'd love to see :)
you’re not delusional at all! you deserve compensation for your time and energy, as well as profit to enjoy your creative life!! keep it up. 💗
I had a friend who had made a beautiful embroidery with silk and gold threads. A neighbor expressed interest in buying it, her price was the cost of her materials, he accused her of trying to cheat him.
Someone I knew came to visit me and was interested in one of my paintings so she asked me how much it was. She instantly said, "No that's too much, I'll give you half." I quoted $800 for a piece that took me months to make. I wasn't hurt, I was disgusted that this person would try to low ball me - in my own home. I said no to her.
@@lorafrisch8395 Obviously that neighbour is in the wrong client demographic for your friend.
Somehow in the art world, or however you wanna call it, it is expected from the artists to *pay* for their ability to do their jobs. Like, can you imagine an electrical engineer fresh out of Uni. having to build, I don't know, say a power supply and then pay a fee to have a representative from General Electric to see it when he/she applies for a job there? Madness.
Galleries hate her. Learn her secret to have exposure as an artist
XD
...whose secret are you mentioning?...
Oooof, I really needed this video, so thank you! I’m a disabled trans artist, and I was getting really disillusioned to paying for calls. 40 bucks is a week of groceries, and I just can’t justify it anymore. I recently moved to Portland, (Oregon) and what you had to say solidified my decision to join the local art society. I’m legit crying, because of how needed this was. THANK YOU! 🖤
A week of groceries? My dear, you are dying.
this absolutely reminds me so much about architecture and how we're bombarded with competitions and expected to legitimately produce work for free so that a jurr can look at it. But then entry costs are like 100-200$ too. Another thing I noticed is that there are a lot of art residencies and awards that want you to pay to enter. I try to take advantage of what free things I can find but it's tough. feels like a scam industry sometimes.
almost feels like ALL industries are scams, somehow.
Pro tip: listen to what people say, repeat what they like, only promote things that pay.
Ummmmm....I'm a quilter and I'm pretty sure you're describing exactly what this story quilting museum's site I use for their "contest" prompts does. You can only submit if you pay a fee for MOST of the C.T.A. and they only give like 4 months usually not long for quilting a whole project even just one for a wall especially how I do it! My brain told me it was a scam as NO GUARANTEE of sale, BUT my heart is tired of not being a part of any scene in any way...
Thank you for talking about this stuff!! I'm a self taught artist who never went to art school or anything to do with the gallery scene etc so this is interesting. The most common calls I get are companies asking for $250 to put my pieces in magazines/art books. You know. To sell without compensating you.
I know, and so many artists will go for it anyway! It’s like we need a union or something :-)
You didn't go to art school because you already knew how to do your work! They should be paying you, shouldn't they? It's so unbelievable!!!
I got that “hey we really like your work would you consider our gallery?”, email, closely followed by the ….”$50 will give you the opportunity for your work to be viewed by the gallery management”.
Excuse me what?! You emailed me!
Love this video, you’re doing great work!
such a scam
I subscribed to my city's newsletter, and have noticed that they regularly solicit art from community-based artists. They even state up front how much they will pay artists for their art, and they're frequently looking for members of minority communities.
Good idea, I'll try that!
I got ill and had to put my art ambitions on pause to get an office job that would pay my bills. But tbh, in the two years I've been working there, I've made more connections in my local art scene than I would ever have trying to get big on social media or submitting to grants in the same period of time. I'm an introvert and making art can get lonely, so I could spend all my days broke and painting without getting noticed. Meanwhile, I've made artist friends, collectors, teachers, community workers and I've learned so much about the boring-but-essential parts of project funding. I've learned that it's through community and a small step at a time that we get significant projects noticed, and that viral overnight success isn't the path I would be comfortable with.
Awesome video! I haven't had any luck with juried competitions, even the ones I get into don't usually mean sales. Hanging my art at local businesses for free display or consignment have always garnered sales and connections for me, so I'm glad you mentioned those!
I am cackling at "JURR". Haven't finished the vid yet but already enjoying it, thanks Cat!
I'm glad I'm not imagining the rip off feeling I always had when I saw these.
The only call I submitted had no charge because someone donated money to it.... and the "JURR" was also the head of the Arts Alliance that was posting the call. In the end I was glad I was not selected when I heard that they then took the winning entries and reprinted the work on items like t-shirts that was sold for profit for the alliance- none of the money from the sales went to the artist.
That is just so wrong!
Omg this is horrible sad and scary
Oh my god, preach. I always apply only to free open calls or I beg for waivers (if they really like/believe in my work, they should grant me one). Also, I wish someone could do a video like this but for film festivals.
And I would love to learn what is your take on artist residencies where they expect you to pay $$$ in order to stay at the AIR
The image of Jeff Koons...epic!
Really enjoyed the Premiere being able to chat with you Catherine ❤️ Thankyou
Oh, it was such a joy to stumble on this video! And not just because your used the theme of clown art in a hypothetical.
I've been pissed off about this issue for at this point 2 decades, but usually when I bring it up to other artists, they either look shocked that I'm even questioning submission fees for juried shows or some of them even adamantly defend it as a necessary and good practice.
I got so annoyed with this, particularly after I found out about a gallery in Cincinnati that literally raises 80% of its revenue (in the hundreds of thousands) from fees for its endless string of juried exhibition fees of $40 a pop.
I got so annoyed with this that at some point I needed to spend a year making conceptual art and clown videos about it.
I hope your video saves many many artists from wasting their time, money, and hopes on all this nonsense. Well done and thank you!
the Jeff koons shade omg sksksksk 💀💀💀
And the Damian Hirst one too Lmaooo
this channel is an instant serotonin boost lmao
i appreciate this series so much!!
love your series. so necessary for artists...
A similar thing happens in writing/publishing in literary magazines. Most general admission fees are $3 but sometimes a magazine will do a contest with an entry fee of $20. I don't mind paying $3 every once in a while when I got the money, but when you're trying to get published you usually dont send your piece to just one place. You send it to multiple places. So that $3 really add up and become a huge barrier for writers. Sometimes the magazine provides fee waivers if you can show need, but not always. The flip side is, I'm pretty sure most literary magazines arent making that much money in general. People don't always want to or can pay for subscriptions (I know I can't and I'm trying to get published in their magazine lol). But now I wonder how much money a gallery make vs a literary magazine. I'm sure that it varies but I'm just curious especially bc galleries charge so much more for their fees but also because they get to sell the pieces and I assume get a cut from those sales.
Great video for newcomers. I've been at it for almost 30 years and I can say I get very few rejection letters nowadays but that was not the case in the beginning. I will say that I take into account the foot traffic that the space has. If I know there will be very little viewers after the opening reception I will not apply. Joining guilds and art association is a very good idea. That helped me immensely. Love the video Catherine! Keep it up. Best.
this video is everything. thank you so much for sharing your experience and insight!!
Thank you for sharing this!!!!!! Lifting the veil❤️
This channel deserves more views!
Seriously. Quality video, quality audio, quality information, quality personality. What more can you ask for. I wish I was still good at networking, I'd market this channel for free.
bless
Preach! I found your channel yesterday and its all brilliant.
Subscribed so quick, really enjoying your videos, thanks!
This is great advice. Thank you for sharing your wide experience. In my experience, being in exhibits over the past 4 years, I have thought along the very same lines and discovered exactly what you describe.
Getting this insight from the other side is really great! It's so tough to figure out what's worth investing your time into when it comes to promotion and exposure and all that. Thank you for the vid!!
really interesting and informative! I'm not in a place with my art where I'm thinking about showing it (anywhere, online or irl lol) but I like have a deeper insight into the professional art world, even if I'm just engaging with it as an art enjoyer (couldn't think of a better word :p)
plus "JURR" was really funny
Came here to say this!
As someone who has been painting as a hobby for a long time and is slowly trying to get into the art world, this was super helpful! I think I'll follow your advice and try exhibiting at local cafes instead :)
This has been great insight.
I've never messed with it, so this was very helpful information
At the beginning of the pandemic, I started baking and cooking a lot, and then I lost my sense of taste and smell, about 50% of which I still don't have (3 years later). Because cooking made me a bit sad during that time, and I had no opportunity to do set design for local theater, I started painting. Mostly, just colors that I liked, but now I have a huge collection of paintings, some of which I've sold in the meantime. I can't tell you how valuable this video is to me, someone whose friends and family keep saying, "You should sell your art," and I have no idea how to do so, despite working in galleries right out of college, being an upstairs gallery supervisor of the Society of Arts & Crafts in the 1980s and being around art my whole adult life. Totally clueless, I am, and this helped so very much. Thank you for this.
Are you a smoker? Did you get your 20th jab?
Holy shit I love you so much!! You have helped me so much with your videos! I just found you today and I’ve already binged all your videos! Keep them coming! Love how detailed and in depth you get it really helps!
I'm treading lightly here but may we know...what happened...to Sports...?
Sports lived a long happy life of over 3 1/2 years! He passed away in 2016
@@CatherineGraffam this is the only time ive ever cared about sports
I didnt watch the video yet but i wanted to say i love your videos and art and i hope you had a good day! Thank you for all the cool stuff you post 😎😎😎
I really adore your videos!!!!💕❤️♥️
Great advice! However, be careful putting art in a cafe or restaurant. Make sure you have insurance on your art and I’d have a contract with the business. I learned the hard way. The business did not make sure my art didn’t walk out the door without being paid for. 😒
This is my worst fear. I always enter big pieces, just to make it more awkward for a theft to happen XD
I’m not a big fan of premiers, but I’m excited for the vid
SAME!!
I NEED MORE CONTENT!!! Lovu
Thanks Cat! And yay to displaying your art in cafes (or breweries :)
My school made us do a poster show, so a) we already knew everyone that was "exhibiting" and b) we didn't sell much, if anything at all. We didn't even get to keep the printed posters we made.
Haha! You really crack me up, but more importantly, you provide such great information
truly you're the teacher ive always wished for...
youre now my favorite channel
It's a good thing that Open Calls in Indonesia tend to be free
my local gallery does a juried show every year..it's mostly local artists, everyone pays $60 to get in but everyone gets to put two pieces in and so far everyone gets in. They have a big gala and honestly it's worth the money just for the food and drink.. i've sold several pieces at this show and won several awards. it's definitely an outlier compared to the ones i get every day in my inbox.
My art professor at the time wanted my painting to be up in an art exhibition. I was so excited that my art was gonna be in a gallery for the first time! Except it was on the day I was suppose to visit an aunt in vegas. In the end I chose vegas 🍸 and not only that, it was summer 2019
Thanks for explaining this process! I appreciate the thorough analysis. p.s. If you were taking requests for future videos, I would love to see a tutorial on best ways to photograph your art!
I’d be curious to hear you’re tips on how to break into the art world and climb the ladder in a gallery setting. I graduated art school in 2020 and I never worked in a gallery but really want to! I’m not trained in curatorial practices though 🙈
Thanks for the good advice!
Yes, local art calls, in local community, excellent advice!
I recognize that this is a pretty old video now, but:
There's an ecosystem surrounding contemporary classical music that works much the same way. Contest culture (among other things) really disillusioned me from continuing down that career path after getting 2 degrees in it and producing a lot of work, much of which I'm still proud of and stand by aesthetically. I think your advice of engaging with your local community and building a mutually supportive body of friends/colleagues rings true in a lot of fields, not just art. The slippery thing (at least where a sustainable career is concerned) is whether or not that core of folks are capable of being advocates of your work, giving it a chance to see daylight. But like you say, not everything is a transaction, so it's not like anybody should expect a 1-to-1 return for integrating into their local artistic community.
I've just found your channel yesterday (through the Corpo Memphis and Pantone vids) and I just wanna say thanks for making nice things and voicing your honest opinions.
Really appreciate this scam videos! Thank you for looking out for us.
30 seconds in, never seen you before, but I'm totally subscribing.
I’m someone who started in art and later moved to film and I have to say that basically the same stuff applies to film festivals. Generally speaking I only submit to festivals that I’ve heard of or I can attend, or have a low entry fee….it’s served me well, I’ve only ever gotten opportunities from festivals I can attend laurels are worth very little.
It was very informative, thank you
So much yes! I have friends that have rejection jars that they put money in for every call and I was like, "I don't have the money for that many calls or to spare for the rejection jar" LOL. Being part of the artist community is really the way to go.
Love your videos.
Excellent! Happy Pride! The only thing I would add is to make sure you have an agreement with cafes about protecting the art. The fees for juried shows make me mad as a limited income queer senior, but they fuel our local art program for kids... many conflicts. I think you are great... sorry about the ramble...
I see respectable galleries asking for fees to submit work. I think the point that it is a barrier to those with income inequality is a strong point. They eliminate a sizeable chunk of the community some of which may have amazing artworks. This situation does not serve us as artists or them. One of the issues I have with DIY is that restaurants often have poor lighting. There is one restaurant here that also set up as a gallery but the rest have pretty bad lighting.Plus years ago, my ex had one of his paintings stolen from a bar. He was flattered lol.
Thanks for this. Calling out the open calls! Personally I'm so bored of them and find their competitive nature depressing. Great advice about artists building their own communities - Much better 🤗❤️👍🏻
Listening to your disclaimer advisory awareness videos puts a clear picture that the "Art World" is as sleazy and highly profitable business for those who control the space and the stage for Art to be display. Just like organize religion does for their followers monthly, Sunday collections. Love your awesome vids Cat!
What happened to sports? I am curious!
He lived a really long, happy life, over 3 1/2 years. He was a huge sweetie, and I miss him. He was very susceptible to upper respiratory infections unfortunately and got sick in his old age. RIP Sports
RIP beloved sports
i think your tips for submitting are really good and the alternatives you listed to juried exhibitions are great. your critical questions to determine what calls to consider based on networking and career advancement are also really useful, no matter what one thinks about juried calls.
i don't disagree about the inherent class problems of entry fees, but at the same time, all sorts of galleries often can't make rent without paid juried exhibitions. there's definitely a discussion that could be had about commercial venues versus co-ops, the nature of vanity galleries, gallery insularity and juror homogeneity, etc., but "waste of money" feels excessive, especially if you want to support local galleries you like.
for the record, my background is also in traditional media and gallery management.
So true!
Love it.
You’re the best!
I imagine that galleries don’t want to be exposed for their way of making money.
I’ve submitted sometimes, but I’ve seen magazines advertise calls too often. A magazine goes out to thousands. Thanks
The Rural Juror
Many film festivals are the same.
Have you done a video where you talk about the queer arts space you set up? I'm hoping to create a queer gallery/community arts space in Bristol (UK) where I live and I'd love to hear about your experience!
Great!!
...my conclusion, at the end of this eloquent (and flirtatious in tone) speech, is that Call for Artist shows are not necessarily the waste heralded by the title...
Visibility of the physical work cannot be substituted by any other form. 35 dollars to have 3 works exhibited is quasi-free. There's no guarantee? Of course there isn't, otherwise it would cost much more.
Want to make sure the work is accepted? Assess with severity your output (this one is the most difficult today, when everyone is deemed "creative" and gets tons of (otherwise indifferent) "likes"...
...The presentation makes some valid points. (The reference to those groups which cannot afford the entry fees was, in my opinion, very unfortunate)...
I've only submitted to online calls for LGBT art shows. Never gotten in but at least none of them charged me anything?
I submitted to local Jurored shows as a student but it was easier just to find students who had similar art pieces and find a venue for us all. No Jurors just us.
When I started an Instagram this little scam was played on me I didn't fall for it .art is about expression ,the art world is a business .you can't just be an artist and expect people to respect that .people like being hypnotized I've learned .they like being shown what to like and when to buy .hype beasts
Great video! Are you from Boston?
DId you tear paint off your wall when you removed that banana?
YES
Every time you say CLOWNS I wince.... I honestly had NIGHTMARES after reading / Seeing (the original) Stephen King's IT and watching Killer Clowns From Outer Space as a kid. Let's just say I'm glad I'm drinking wine while watching this....
0:30, I wonder if at some point in the future you COULD download a body, you know, provided we don't ruin ourselves in the intervening period
the artists associations in akron ohio definitely are older more traditional artists - alot older white men and women doing traditional landscapes and portraits etc -- I wish there was a more modern or contemporary group to join for Illustrators and contemporary artists. I just entered show in cleveland with kink contemporary and wish they were an artists guild because it was a variety of ages but the art was more diverse, experimental, and explored different mediums
And for those vanity calls... please call them out! I could name a few...
There's a weird one at the moment - just seen a CFA competition/exhibition.
An art brand I like (starts with D, is British, and also a lake here) is running an Art Prize what is basically a Call for Artists competition - you can win thousands in money and art materials for a year (only £50 pm though)..but it's £15 to submit, and £5 per work after that. I'd be less WTF about it if it was some non-profit etc, but it's basically a self-funded competition and curated CFA exhibition run by a for-profit company who obviously will then ALSO use the winning work for promotion capital as well?
That really doesn't seem worth it.
They are a total waste of money! I enter the most prestigious one only because they promise to give us a certificate or diploma of participation from them even if you would not win. I knew I could not win because in UK most artists are only recognized if they are from there. They charge a huge fee and after the exhibition they changed the rules and said that the diplomas were only going to be printed for few selected artists! You bet I will never participate again in that or any call that has any fee! I only pay a fee if I know I can make more money than the fee and my art will hang on a real wall!
I really enjoy what I have seen so far on your channel. Keep it up! Sorry no foot massage for you!
Oops I thought I was subscribed to you already. Lemme fix that *hits button*
The only thing a call for art has done for me is get my art stolen. 🙄
So I clicked on this video because this sounds oddly similar to "call for scores" in the music composition world. Currently 7 1/2 minutes in and yup, they sound exactly the same with a different medium.
Can you cover those weird Instagram 'Be Featured On Our Channel!' bot things? Pretty sure it's a scam....I mean why would they use bots for a start....
Oops forgot I already posted this! Forgive me.
You're wrong about everything! Lol jk, you're very smart and talented and I love your videos and praise the algorithm for bringing your channel to me :) Hoping for many more videos, I would be a patron if I had any disposable income in life.
I heard about this shit from someone who recommended it to me in May 2021. I was like “noo noo! I don’t do or entry shit like this because i never win anything,” and my art isn’t for people to judge in a contest, it’s simply for me. But they convinced me to pay the $25 and I stupidly paid it, I thought to myself hey, i’ll never see this $25 ever again. Of course I lost and I blocked them from sending me anymore emails. Like. Go away. (Call for Entry Atlanta-Midtown Studio thingy) 🤣 then I see this video!! Like i wish this came out sooner, they are making bank off artist who are desperate for a shot.
Most galleries already have a stable of artist in their roster
shady shade
Calls for art submissions. Art contests. Opportunities for payment in magic "exposure" dollars. Art schools, and art teachers that dress like factory workers but do no manual labor.
All of those are a waste of your time. Every single one.
Sophie 💕
Is your art any good?
The rural juror