Top Five Artist No-No's for Submitting to Exhibitions

How do you interact with various artist opportunities and calls for entries? How do you think galleries, publications, museums, and other art venues view you, the artist, who has submitted to their opportunity? Many artists assume they are simply a number in a database when it comes to open calls for entries and juried exhibitions. In fact, this is usually not the case, and there are some steps you can take to avoid having a bad reputation associated with your name, or, oppositely, get in good.

"Do you mean that an artist's reputation affects his/her acceptance to the exhibition?" No. Well, not exactly. If the opportunity follows a "blind" juried style, then your reputation and name will have nothing to do with your acceptance. However it may affect your potential for awards and honors, additional opportunities, and extra promotion of your work -- all of which typically happen outside of the jurying once your name is revealed. This is where it's good to know the etiquette of email, phone, and written correspondence with the potential opportunity you plan to submit to.


Here's the top five worst things you can say/do to mar your artist reputation when submitting to an artist opportunity:

1. "Can you just do the application for me? Here's my images and resume." - This is basically like saying, "I don't have time for your silly art opportunity, but I just know you'll like my work so much that you'll want to help me any way you can!" While you truly may too busy to figure out the application yourself, that is not how the opportunity host will view you -- it will come across as laziness. If you really don't have time for preparing the application materials required, then this may not be the right opportunity for you, or at least not the right timing in your life. An alternative could be to hire someone to do it for you.

2. "I just submitted my application, and now I'm emailing to tell you about my great upcoming exhibition somewhere else!" If the call for entry opportunity requested your resume, then put that awesome upcoming exhibition information on the resume. If the opportunity did not ask for a resume, then you probably shouldn't send this kind of information as it can be seen as annoying and irrelevant to the call for entry at hand.

3. Adding their email address to your monthly email newsletter list. This happens so frequently that it seems a daunting task to spread the word to artists everywhere about this big no-no. If the person/museum/gallery/magazine did not sign-up for your list, then at least ask before you add. Sometimes they'll say yes, sometimes they'll say no, but asking permission eliminates the likelihood that your message ends up in the spam box harming your newsletter's reputation further.

4. Not saying "thank you" when accepted. Congrats - you received the acceptance letter, meaning your work was found to be a good fit for this opportunity! Why not say "thank you" to the opportunity host and/or jurors? A simple reply to the acceptance email is sufficient, and words of gratitude go a long way to keeping your name in good standing for potential future opportunities that are not juried. Not saying thank you is actually noticed and makes the opportunity host wonder, "Aren't they excited?" or worse "They seem rude, unappreciative, etc."

5. Being a jerk when not accepted. As disappointing as it is and as much as you believe your work was the best fit for this opportunity, don't be rude to the opportunity host because of your so-called "rejection letter." Trust me, that tiny little email with "@#$%! you!" written in it will definitely get your name remembered, but not in a positive light. Avoiding the temptation to lash out can prove more beneficial in the long run. Instead of relieving your anger by writing that email, try writing your feelings in a journal, creating a new piece of art, or sharing your disappointment with a friend.