Is it worth entering art competitions part 2
It is worth being careful when selecting the types of art competitions that you enter. I have a rule for myself, that if an art competition or open call does not ask for a statement about you or your work, then it is not worth entering.
These types of competitions, a lot of these are Mall Galleries competitions such as the ROI or RSMA etc, they are looking for image alone. Arguably I dont feel that they are about pushing back the boundaries of art, they appear more to rehash the same types of art that have been done since the early 20th century, they are about image only rather than concept.
Therefore the chances of being selected are much less if you have a strong conceptual element in your work.
The other thing thats worth looking at with open call exhibitions is the selection process. Is it online only? Is there a two stage process where you bring your work down for a final selection in the flesh?
I have entered the Royal Academy Summer show many times, but now feel that it really isnt worth it.
Yes, being accepted into the RA summer show is great for your CV, but its expensive (£35-£40) and if you get selected online you have to take the work down to London and queue up with it to drop it off. With the price of fuel and congestion and ULEZ charges, this is prohibitively expensive, and I feel in this day and age to be getting 4000 people to drive to London to drop off a painting only for 3200 of them to have to come back a couple of weeks later to collect it when it is rejected is appalling.
An online selection process is much cheaper and less time consuming, and after the initial fee you dont really have to think about it further after submission. If you are sleected to be hung then its often worth taking it down, or finding a picture delivery person to take it in for you.
The final thing worth considering is to look on social media to see whether the gallery or award body has in the past shared images of the selected work during their open call exhibitions, as artists this is an expensive thing to do, we do it for exposure so a part of that nowadays is through social media. the gallery should have a fairly big following on instagram and showing an image of your work with your name to their followers may help you out considerably, and I feel, should be part of the contract of selection and entry.