Showing Your Work: judged vs. juried

Just a quick post delineating the difference between a judged and a juried show. Because I am a word junkie and a dictionary geek….

 

Jury:
1 – a group of persons sworn to render a verdict or true answer on a question or questions officially submitted to them.
2 – to judge or evaluate by means of a jury: All entries will be juried by a panel of professionals.

Judge:  
1 – a person appointed to decide in any competition, contest, or matter at issue; authorized arbiter: the judges of a beauty art contest. (although I love it when art is beautiful!)
2 – a person qualified to pass a critical judgment: a good judge of horses art. (honestly now, judging art is SO subjective and I think it’s a great thing that we all have different opinions!)

If an art show is juried, one or more people will be looking at all of the submitted works to choose which will be accepted.

If the show is judged, the accepted artworks will be evaluated against each other and prizes of some sort of recognition will be awarded to a few of the pieces. Prizes range from ribbons to cash awards, and purchase awards. Sometimes a future solo show at the venue is awarded. If the award is a purchase award check to see if there is a certain amount that will be paid. If your artwork is priced higher than that amount you might not want to enter the show, or at least check to see if there is an option to opt out of consideration for the purchase award.

Sometimes the juror returns to judge the show after it is hung, sometimes the jury and judges are different people.

Many smaller shows are not juried at all but accept entries based on membership, media, or location. Many shows have judges that award prizes even if they are not juried. Many shows are juried but not judged.

And for all your fabulous quilt show fanatics out there – here is an excellent article – a conversation with a quilt JUDGE. Click the link then scroll just a bit to read. Remember, these are the criteria QUILT judges are trained to look for.  She talks about QUILTING techniques as having priority over COMPOSITION because she is a QUILT JUDGE. If you are an artist making quilts and entering quilt shows, this is something that you need to understand. It is quite seldom that a traditional quilt show will hire an artist as a judge. I personally, don’t think it’s a bad thing at all because it’s a QUILT SHOW my friends. If you want to be judged as an artist enter an ART show. (I enter both, just so you know.)

Other essays in this series

Showing Your Work

Showing Your Work: motivation

Showing Your Work: choose your audience

Showing Your Work: choosing venues

Showing Your Work: fine craft shows

Showing Your Work: traveling trunk show

Showing Your Work: a museum experience

Showing Your Work: local venues

Showing Your Work: photographing your art

Showing Your Work: organizing entries

Showing Your Work: judged vs. juried

Showing Your Work: the jury process

Showing Your Work: rejection

Showing Your Work: more about rejection

Showing Your Work: shipping your artwork