Bethesda Row Arts Festival 2009 – Artist Application

Artist Application & Jury Process

Event Overview
General Information & Demographics
Digital Application & Jury
Jury Details
Application Instructions & Fees
Important Dates
Important: Application Checklist

EVENT OVERVIEW

Each October, the streets of Bethesda Row, are turned into an outdoor art gallery, featuring juried fine arts and fine crafts. About 190 leading artists nationwide come to Bethesda, MD’s Arts & Entertainment District to showcase their work.

The Arts Festival offers an Art Sale benefitting the NIH Children’s Charities, a Poster Sale, artist demonstration tent, children’s art activities, live acoustic stage performances, street performers, and high-quality outdoor food vendors. Additionally, Bethesda Row features more than 50 fine shops, upscale galleries, and unique restaurants with outdoor seating.

GENERAL INFORMATION & ATTENDEE DEMOGRAPHICS

The Festival will take place Saturday, October 17th and Sunday, October 18th, 2009 on three streets of Bethesda Row, located in Bethesda, MD (Woodmont Ave, Bethesda Ave & Elm St). Set-up for the festival begins early-morning of Saturday, October 17th.

The fifteen media categories that are juried for the Bethesda Row Arts Festival are: ceramics, drawing & pastels, fiber, glass, graphics & printmaking, jewelry, metalwork, mixed media 2D, mixed media 3D, oil/acrylic painting, photography & digital art, sculpture, watercolor, and wood, with an ‘other’ option should the artists’ work not fit into one of these categories.

The approximately 45,000 attendees come from the Washington DC-metro area and the suburb of Bethesda, one of the nation’s most affluent regions, with 40% of households earning $100,000 and over. This area is also ranked 6th in the nation for the number of households attending arts/cultural events, with 38% of households attending arts events and purchasing fine arts/antiques. (Source: SRDS, The Lifestyle Market Analysis 2006) Marketing through newspapers, magazines , television, and radio, is directed to these individuals with high disposable income and interest in fine arts. Additionally, the Arts Festival places of over 10,000 handcards & posters in Bethesda Row merchant windows.

Submission Requirements:
All entries must be sent as either: original art with a minimum size of 16”w x 24”h and no more than 24”w x 36”h; or in electronic format on CD. All entries must include the name “Bethesda Row Arts Festival 2009”. Any number of colors may be used in the design. All artwork must be original and previously unpublished. Each entry must include the artist's name, address and telephone number adhered to the back of the entry. No more than three designs per artist may be submitted.

Design entries must be postmarked by May 4th, 2009 to Bethesda Row Arts Festival, 14803 Southlawn Lane, Suites M&N, Rockville, MD 20850.

Judging:
Submissions should be thematically related to the arts festival. The Bethesda Row Arts Festival Management accepts no liability for damaged or lost art works. The winning entry becomes the property of Festival Management. The winning entry may be used for promotional advertising materials and festival related products for sale.

DIGITAL APPLICATION & JURY
The Bethesda Row Arts Festival has decided to implement a digital application & jury system for 2009. As slides and projectors are becoming obsolete, many shows have already moved to a digital jury process. We have heard from artists who like and dislike the digital jury systems in existence and we have explored both options. However, as a small show, we are unable to adopt either of the digital jury systems without incurring significant increases in jury expenses for equipment and services. This would result in larger increases in jury fees, which we don’t want to do to our artists! Additionally, the management company specializes in outdoor movies and professional projection nationwide, so we already have the high-quality, professional projection systems necessary to project images for the jury. National Geographic trusts us to project their artists’ images at their three-day, annual Festival of the Photograph event, we hope you will too!

While we are using our own application & projection system, we are requesting images be submitted in the widely accepted 1920 x1920 pixel format as suggested by NAIA (The National Association of Independent Artists: http://www.naia-artists.org/work/bulletin_to_shows_re_formatting_standards.pdf). Our new system will allow us to accept your application over the internet and allow you to use the digital images already prepared for other events. We will still accept applications and digital images on disk via mail as well if you are more comfortable with that submission method. More information about the image format and jury process can be found below.

JURY DETAILS

Jurors/Qualifications:
The three-paneled jury is composed two art professionals versed in a wide range of artistic media, usually a Washington DC-based academic and curator, as well as a non-local, working artist. A new jury is impaneled each year to ensure the show remains fresh and eliminate any favoritism or bias. These jurors will also be on-site at the event to serve as a standards committee and select artist award winners.

Image Viewing:
Projected (use of a high definition LCD projector projected on screens calibrated to the sRGB color space)

Image Review Details:
The jury is live and conducted in one day. The identities of artists are not disclosed to the jurors. While all jurors are in the same room, discussion is not encouraged to eliminate any bias or influence from other jurors. Artists submit five digital images for the jury process; four images of their work and one image of their booth display. The images appear on the screen in two rows with images 1-3 on the top row, left to right, and image 4 and booth slide on the 2nd row, left to right. Each medium is reviewed in two rounds. Jurors will first review images within one category and not score. Jurors will then review artists’ images within that category and score each artist when displayed. Images can be enhanced if juror(s) requests a magnified view, and the process, materials, dimensions for each image, and price point will also be made available to the jury upon request.

Available Exhibit Spaces:
Approximately 190 artists will exhibit at the 2009 Bethesda Row Arts Festival. A total of 18 artistic award winners from 2008 have been invited to return. The remainder of exhibit slots will be determined through the competitive jury process.

Artistic excellence of original work is the sole criteria for selection of exhibitors. The top 160 receive invitations with about 20 of the next highest scoring artists comprising the waiting list. The jury is asked to select a well-balanced show across the different artistic disciplines. Decisions of the jury panel are final.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

Deadline:
The application, images and jury fee should be submitted electronically by 11:59pm on Saturday, May 30, 2009. Mailed materials must be postmarked by Saturday, May 30, 2009.

Download the Artist Prospectus & Application.

For your application to be considered complete, all artists must submit a jury fee, booth fee, late fee and tent rental fee if applicable, and a signed Artist Release. A credit card approval form is included with the application for your convenience. If submitting your application online, you will have the opportunity to print the release form and credit card approval form after you complete the online application.

A non-refundable jury fee of $32 will be deposited or charged upon receipt of your check or credit card approval form. An additional $50 should be included if the application is postmarked or submitted After May 31, 2009.

Exhibitor fee per 10’ x 10’ booth: $475 deposited upon jury acceptance into the show. If paying by check, please post-date booth check to June 24, 2009. If paying by credit card, please authorize payment on the approval form for June 24, 2009. If not juried into the festival, the booth fee check and credit card approval form will be returned. A few double spaces are available; please enclose an additional $475 if interested in a double booth. Booth sharing is not permitted.

Application Submission Options:

Fill out application form and submit online. You must print out, sign and return the Artist Agreement for your application to be considered complete. You may fax this agreement or mail it with your checks or credit card approval form.
Download application, fill out and e-mail/mail address listed on the application with jury & booth fee. Payment must be received by deadline for your application to be considered complete.

Digital Images:

Five images: 4 of artwork and 1 of artists’ booth display.
Images can be submitted online, e-mailed or mailed as listed under the application submission options above.
Images are requested to be 1920 x 1920 pixels at 72 PPI (pixels per inch) saved as high-resolution, baseline JPG format. The image file size must be less than 1.8 MBs. Each image should be labeled with your name, medium and the image number (1-5).
Images should be prepared in the sRGB (standardized Red Green Blue) color space. It the default color space for most digital cameras, projection devices, and for viewing images on a monitor and in a browser.
If your image is not square, please mask your image with black to bring your image to 1920x1920 pixels as illustrated below.
If you have questions regarding digital image preparation, the NAIA offers Digital Resources on preparing your images and recommendations on professionals offering digital imaging services.

Digital Image Upload:
You must submit five images (four of your artwork and one of your booth display) as JPEG files; your name should be in the filename of each image file (for instance last_first1.jpg). In the online application, you will have the opportunity to upload each image. If you will be submitting your images on a CD, please label each file clearly (ex: last_first1.jpg) and mail it to:

Bethesda Row Arts Festival
14803 Southlawn Lane Suites L-N
Rockville, MD 20850

QUESTIONS?
If the information contained in the application or listed above doesn’t answer your question, please contact us at info@bethesdarowarts.org or 301.637.5715. We aim to respond to inquiries within 24 hours during the standard business week.