Art world etiquette guide part 1 : Open Call Protocol
“Art World Etiquette Guide” is an ongoing series that covers best practices for artists at every stage of the exhibition process from emailing galleries to deinstall and beyond. We’re here to demystify the opaque social codes of the art world so that you and your work make an impression for the right reasons.
In this edition, we cover the do’s and don’t’s of open calls. An art world staple and the first exhibition opportunity for many emerging artists, open calls are a great way to get your work out there and make new connections, if you know how to navigate the process. Read below to make sure your work has the best chance of being selected without irritating any gallerists in the process.
Do’s
Do: Follow all of the submission guidelines (even if they seem annoying!)
Every gallery has their own submission guidelines: some want your images at 72dpi, some want the files labeled in lastname_title_year, and rarely are two gallery’s guidelines the same. This can be annoying as an artist and seem like an unnecessary timesuck in what is already a tedious process, but galleries have their guidelines for a reason, whether that is for compatibility for the software they use to review submissions or to help organize hundreds of artwork files. Regardless of whether or not you agree with these guidelines, failure to follow them will often get your submission thrown in the trash. Jurors have to review hundreds of submissions on tight deadlines, and no one wants to wait for your weirdly-formatted files to load (looking at you .txt submissions). At best, the juror skips over your submission and you’ve wasted your submission fee. At worst, it shows the gallery that you can’t follow directions, and that’s a bad first impression for any artist.
Do: Submit by the deadline*
Astute readers will quickly sense that many of the reasons behind these “do’s” follow a similar rationale: galleries and jurors are sorting through hundreds, if not thousands, of submissions and are often working on tight deadlines with quick turnarounds. In that vein, getting your submission in on time not only shows that you’re dependable but it allows time for the full consideration of your submission. From the gallery-side of things, I’ve been in situations where we had a week (sometimes less) between the deadline and the final selection of work. Even if you email a couple of days past the deadline asking to submit, it might be that the work has already made its way to the juror or that deliberations have begun. Like with guidelines, deadlines exist for a reason.
*Life happens and in some select instances we have been able to allow extensions for proactive artists with extenuating circumstances who reach out before the deadline (key word: before) (second key word: extenuating. Read: hospitalizations, family emergencies, not “I just saw your post”). Don’t expect every gallery to be able to accommodate this, but if you’re in a truly difficult situation you can ask.
Do: Take good photos
Guess what? This guideline has partly the same reasoning as the previous two. Hundreds of submissions, don’t make things difficult, etc etc. However, and this may seem obvious, we are evaluating your submission based largely on the work you are submitting, and amazingly, if we cannot see your work well, we cannot judge it, and we won’t include it. You don’t need to hire a professional photographer (a nice iPhone photo will suffice), but images of your work should be clear, well-lit, shot straight-on, and with no major visual distractions in the background. I’ve seen submissions get thrown out because we literally could not tell what the work was based on the photos submitted. A bad photo isn’t fair to you or your work, so take the extra time on this step - it’ll always pay off.
Do: Know the difference between your bio and your statement
This one may seem like nitpicking, but a bio and a statement serve two different functions that help galleries make decisions about you and your work. A bio is a short (and I mean SHORT) summary of who you are and the major highlights of your career. An artist statement is longer and tells us who you are as an artist: what work you make, why you make it, why it matters, what your process is etc. Conflating the two or not making that distinction clear in your writing makes the review process confusing for jurors. It turns the process into something like the dreaded scroll through endless personal anecdotes to get to the actual recipe on a food blog - it obscures the actual meat (pun intended) of what you’re trying to say. Writing bios and statements genuinely, in official parlance, sucks so badly, but taking the time to know the difference and write them well will make sure the juror can look at your work in the best light.
Pro tip: While it may seem tempting to use ChatGPT to write your bio and statement, many galleries will throw your submission in the trash if you do. It’s almost like we’re in the business of valuing original, creative voices. If you’re stuck, check out these helpful guides below on how to get started. Sometimes galleries will help you revise these, but you have to write them first. We will take an authentic piece of writing from you over a perfect piece from a machine any day.
Writing your Artist Statement from SAIC
What We Learned from Writing 7000 Artist Bios from Artsy
Do: Be gracious in rejection
One of my favorite professors once told me that if you’re accepted to 30% of the things you apply for as an artist, you have a ridiculously incredible success rate. More often than not, you will be rejected from things you apply to and that’s okay! Rejection is not a reflection of you or your work; sometimes it just wasn’t the right show or right timing for your submission. In any outcome, good or bad, be gracious in your response. A rejection email doesn’t necessitate a response, but if you feel compelled to respond, thank the gallery for their time in reviewing your submission and offer to stay in touch. Some galleries will offer feedback on your submission, some don’t. Like with extensions, you can ask but not every gallery will be able to accommodate your request. We remember the artists who handled rejection well when they apply again because the art world is ultimately about relationship building; we’re more inclined to work with you should you apply again.
DON’T’S
Don’t: Email the gallery too soon asking about your submission
Some galleries work on tight turnarounds, some have the luxury of more time. On the gallery-side, the shortest turnaround time we had was two weeks (don’t recommend). As an artist, the longest turnaround time I experienced was four months. This can depend on a variety of factors like the exhibition calendar and the juror’s availability. In any timeline, the email that consistently ruffles the most feathers is the one sent too soon asking if we’ve made a decision yet. Gallery staff and jurors are busy just like you are - many of us work multiple jobs or have family commitments, and running a gallery often involves a major administrative lift that artists and viewers don’t see. Sending the “when is the decision going to be made” email too soon comes across as being hasty and inconsiderate of our time and workload (like give me a second here!) To avoid this, before submitting, check to see if there is a date range for when results will be posted in the call language; if you don’t see one, feel free to ask, ideally before the submission deadline. Even if a gallery doesn’t have an exact notification date, they can usually give you a general time period to expect a response. On the flip side, you’re welcome to email if it’s past the decision deadline, around the 10-day mark, and you haven’t heard anything.
Don’t: Ghost your inbox
You got into the show - congrats! Getting in is only the first step; there are several logistics that need to be worked out with the gallery from shipping your work to object labels to reception dates. It always surprises me when we accept an artist into a show and then they just…never respond to any of our emails about the show. Are you shipping your work? *silence* Can you confirm the label language? *crickets* Do you even want to participate? Ghosting gallery staff can leave the show in limbo and impact the other artists. There were hundreds of artists who applied and wanted to be accepted - the least you can do is respond to an email. You won’t hurt our feelings if you don’t want to participate in the show any longer, but you will enrage us if you don’t let us know.
Don’t: Haggle about work selection
Some open calls will select specific pieces of yours into a show. Maybe they didn’t select your favorite piece, bummer, but hey, they still liked your work, and that’s a major win. You’re on the road to building a positive relationship with the gallery. One of the worst things you can do right now is to argue with the gallery about the work selection. If we accepted a specific piece into a show, bring that specific piece to the gallery. If the work is no longer available, let us know; sometimes we will work with an artist to select a backup piece. Do not, and I can’t believe I have to say this, show up to the gallery with extra work or different work and demand that those pieces be hung up instead (yes this has happened). It reads not only as a breach of contract, depending on if you have loan forms, but also as a rude questioning of the curatorial capabilities of the juror and staff. It comes across as “I can do your job better than you.” Maybe you believe that, and maybe you can, but it’s a quick way to burn bridges and have your name remembered for the wrong reasons. People typically don’t want to work with people who break agreements or have a superiority complex. Shocking, I know.
Don’t: Complain about submission fees (or worse: file a chargeback for those fees!)
Submission fees, like writing artist bios and statements, generally suck, but they’re a necessary evil. Depending on where you’re submitting, they help cover the administrative costs of open calls (website hosting fees, form fees, credit card fees, the endless micro fees involved with gallery work), help pay juror stipends, or cover basic operational necessities like rent or utilities. No gallery is riding high off of artist fees; most, in fact, are operating on a shoe string budget and submission fees help keep the lights on another month (especially in nonprofit galleries that take a much, much smaller commission from sold work than commercial galleries). If a submission fee isn’t feasible for you, ask about a fee waiver - some galleries have them for artists in difficult financial straits. We’re much more likely to give you that waiver or work with you to reduce the submission fee if you don’t cuss us out in our DMs about it first. None of us are paid enough to answer those messages.
Similarly, in another installment of “I can’t believe I have to say this,” but if you’re not accepted into a show, do not file a chargeback with your bank about the submission fee (yes, once again, this has actually happened). It’s not only petty, but it takes away the support for all of the aforementioned gallery operations. Are we going to close over one lost submission fee? No. Is it a real dick move? Yes. Do I remember the name of who pulled that move and are they now on my blacklist? Also yes.
You know what you did, Brian.
parting thoughts
I am in the fortunate position of being an artist who also works at a gallery, and I created this series to help artists navigate this tricky world as someone both on the submitting and reviewing side of the process.
If I could share a parting thought to artists from the gallery perspective, it would be this: we are in this business because we are passionate about art and artists (and many of us are actually artists ourselves). We want to be able to evaluate your work in a way that is both generous to the time and money you spent in submitting as well as the workload and time constraints of gallery staff and jurors. As such, the rules and guidelines outlined here aren’t meant to be punitive, they’re here to help support everyone in the process so that we can focus on what matters: the art.
Have questions or suggestions for another installment in this series? Email beantownartbeat@gmail.com