I decided to pull up the original letter that was published in the Argus Leader about Arts Night to see if I was off base in any way with my claims. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s review what I wrote:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It seems the Washington Pavilion Arts Night Committee is taking a page from SculptureWalk when it comes to selecting art. Arts Night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s secret jurors used vague criteria to pick who could donate to Arts Night this year. \u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n True. The jury is a secret and continues to be a secret. I stand corrected though on the comment \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcvague criteria\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. The criteria isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t vague but rather exclusive.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When Arts Night started just six years ago, the Pavilion had no problem with begging local artists to donate. Last year though they started to jury the event because of it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s popularity. \u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n True. Arts Night has always been an event that sells donated art. Last year (2006) they decided to jury the event because of all the donations they have received, they wanted to limit them to 60 because of the auction time frame. This was brought up when I was on the committee, I advised against it at the time, and in 2006 when they said it would be \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcjuried\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (the language they used in both 2006 and 2007) I decided not to submit a piece, but Howard and Erin personally asked me and told me my piece would not be rejected. I told them at that time I did not agree with the jurying process and they needed to approach it differently, I told them this repeatedly and even sent Erin, Howard and Hoffman an article from the NY Times talking about charity art auctions, where I highlighted suggestions.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right, the same organization that asks for money from the city every year to subsidize it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s programs rejects donations from local artists. Thirty-four artists were rejected this year which approximately could have brought in over $25,000 in additional funds to the Visual Arts Center. Funds that help keep the VAC free throughout the year.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n As you can see I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a problem with my tax dollars subsidizing the arts center, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m\u00c2\u00a0 just baffled by why they would reject donations. I never once said that I was against funding the facility (even though the AL misquoted me a few weeks ago on that issue).<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was one of the artists who was rejected. As an artist who has submitted art to many juried shows, I know rejection is common place, I do not take issue with rejection. What makes this show different then other juried shows is that the jury is kept secret and criteria for rejection is kept vague. Each rejected artist received a form letter as to why they were rejected. What also makes this odd is the rejection of a donation. Especially from artists who have been giving to the event for several years. \u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n This was the first time I said I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a problem with the rejection, yet the spin doctors defending Arts Night decided to personally attack me by saying I should just shut up and paint and buck up. That wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the issue. I have already come to the conclusion that the jurors are unknowledgeable in the arts, just look at the exhibit. I just want to know who they are so I can PERSONALLY back that conclusion up. For example in the criteria they claim that \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsaleability\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is one of the determining\u00c2\u00a0 factors in being selected, yet they picked loads of photography. Sure photography is art, but is not necessarily original art because you can make prints from it. Art auctioneers will tell you that original art such as a painting will bring more $$ then a photo print or giclee.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Pavilion has oodles of excuses as to why they limit their submissions, and some of them are acceptable: quality, saleability etc. What is unacceptable is keeping jurors secret and criteria vague – especially in a publicly funded facility.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n This is the real issue, like I have said from the beginning. If the artists submitting CANNOT be anonymous in their submissions, then the jury cannot be either, especially in a publicly funded facility.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I questioned David Merhib, the Visual Arts Center Director, for specifics on why I was rejected and who the jurors were. He denied me the information. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/em><\/p>\n Everyone has jumped to the conclusion that I went running to the AL right away crying, but that is not the case at all. I tried to work with the Pavilion in 2006 contacting three people then, and this year contacting David Merhib himself.\u00c2\u00a0 Both times they have refused to work on a solution or answer questions.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u009dIt is important that jurors are made known for several reasons, and retaliation is not one of them, that assertion is ridiculous. Commonly it is out of respect for the artist. Being judged by unknowns is unusual in juried shows. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/em><\/p>\n No where have I said I would retaliate against the jurors. This is about the policies at the Pavilion, it has NOTHING to do with the volunteer jurors or ethics for that matter. Hoffman has already admitted to another Arts Night artist that calling it a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcjuried\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 exhibit is flawed, yet there has been no admission publicly and not solution put forward.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u009dRejecting art on it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own merits is fair. Rejecting art because you disagree with an artist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s personal beliefs is shallow. When will the art organizations in Sioux Falls learn that secrecy only creates suspicion?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n I want to conclude by saying that I have never personally attacked anyone, just the Pavilion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s policies, Mr. Schiller chose to defend those policies by personally attacking me instead explaining or justifying their policies.<\/p>\n Now who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the bad guy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I decided to pull up the original letter that was published in the Argus Leader about Arts Night to see if I was off base in any way with my claims. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s review what I wrote: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It seems the Washington Pavilion Arts Night Committee is taking a page from SculptureWalk when it comes to selecting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.25dp.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.25dp.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.25dp.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.25dp.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.25dp.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.25dp.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.25dp.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.25dp.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.25dp.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}