DC Art Bank

Recently I had the pleasure and honor of sitting down with seven other jurors to help select the Art Bank acquisitions by the DC commission and the arts and humanities.

I think initially there was something in the neighborhood of around 400+ works of art submitted for consideration, which is by far, I think, the largest number of artists who have submitted work whenever the city announces that they are interested in acquiring work for the permanent collection of Washington, DC.

But, I still think it's not enough! Everyone of you dear readers who is an artist, and who lives around the DMV, and who did not submit artwork...well, don't complain about lack of opportunities. There's absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be thousands of submissions from every artist in the region... the process is very simple; it's all done online; it doesn't cost anything... there are no excuses. 

For Gawd sakes! there are artists from Baltimore who submitted art... And who at least take the time and effort to send work in!

And, if we eliminate the usual suspects, whom are already in the loop and who submit work for any and everything, I bet you that it was less than 20% of people who are "new" in the artistic scene... At least, new to me. 

Some of these "usual suspects" already have... in some cases, more than 10 pieces of art in the permanent collection of the city... But, they bust their ass, and they work, and they submit, and that's why they get picked!

I submitted work too, by the way.

It got rejected... cough, cough, but I practice what I preach, and have a tough skin when it comes to this... I will submit again for the next call...

Since there were eight different people jurying and grading and qualifying and talking, I think it was pretty fair process - and it was a lot of fun! Some were artists, some were collectors, some were curators, some were dealers, it was a good mix! 

The final selections will be announced soon, congratulations to all of them!