Wednesday 13th August 2014
Competition isn't usually one of the first ones a person thinks of when they're thinking about art. It's generally high-flying ideological pursuits, pretty pictures, and maybe the whole starving artist thing. But there is a whole world of art competitions for those who are ready to start taking their work out of the studio and putting it in front of the world. Many artists have no desire to do so, and that's a perfectly acceptable choice - but for those that do, we're going to take a look at some of benefits and pitfalls of the art award, whether it's having your work up in a local library or something a bit more prestigious like a juried competition.
First of all, it's important to point out that many artists go their whole careers without winning awards - even the world-famous masters that have many works in galleries around the world often went unappreciated by the artistic sensibilities of their peers. If you have no desire to join an art competition, don't feel bad! Art is fulfilling on many levels, and adulation is not a prerequisite. Even if you do enter but don't win, don't let that discourage you - try to use it to motivate you to work even harder on your next piece.
The juried show is probably the most prestigious type of competition that is run in the art world today. Typically, a number of accomplished members of the art community - gallery owners, museum directors, and even a couple of more well-known artists - will make the final decisions about the winning entries. Even if you don't win, it's often a great way to start building exposure for yourself as an artist, and if you do win, then you'll obviously get a great exposure boost, and probably a nice little award in the bargain.
That being said, don't hesitate to get your art out into the world any way you know how, whether it's on a crowd-sourced platform online that lets the viewers vote or some other channel for getting exposure. The only route to exposure that's a bad door to open is to do commissioned works for free on the simple promise of "getting exposure" - that tends to be code for "someone is trying to take advantage of you because they don't think they should have to pay for your work". Steer clear of that, and stick to methods that give you and your work the respect deserved.
Posted on August 13th 2014 on 10:04pm