Should public art galleries demand academic credentials before they show your work?

                                                           Academic inflation.
     Should public art galleries demand academic credentials before they show your work?

This is an important question for the art world. I put this question out recently and I received some very strong reactions from many artists. There have been rumours that many public art galleries do indeed ask for this accreditation before they allow exhibition by artists. I have contacted a few public galleries in major cities and asked if this is the case with their particular gallery. Most said no, but when asked how may “unaccredited ’artists they had shown in the recent past, gallery directors could remember very few if any at all who did not have accreditation.

According to a few of my readers this has become a real problem for artists in Europe as well as North America. One reader said that he found it endemic and therefore a real problem for those not accredited.

All major public art galleries use professional staff curators who have academic credentials. This is a good thing. Is it possible though that those public art gallery curators equate their own academic degree with excellence and therefore equate artists without degrees or diplomas as not of equal value to those artists who have degrees?

Wikipedia states “Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually critisise art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is questionable whether such criticism can transcend prevailing socio-political circumstances.” I must agree. Academia definitely follows set trends, and those who do not conform to the many “isims” are often labelled outsiders. This may or may not be healthy. I’m inclined to think that some opening up needs to happen in order for the academic world to become more inclusive.

Jock Hildebrand has been a working sculptor for more than 40 years and has contributed to public art around the world with his work. Jock is the senior editor and founder of SculpturesPacific Magazine. He has organized and worked in many international sculpture symposium and was the founder of the 2002 Okanagan Thompson International Sculpture Symposium (with a budget of 2.2 million dollars) .
Sculpture by Jock Hildebrand
SculpturesPacific Magazine

There are no shortcuts unless you happen to be at the right place at the right time. And that’s never happened to me.

Marketing your sculpture

I recently had an email sent to me in my role as editor of our sculpture magazine, SculpturesPacific. I was asked how had I managed to make a living as a sculptor, and would I have any advice?
I do get these letters quite often.

Making a living as a sculptor is all about marketing. Fortunately for all of us, we now have the internet and it seems to be the best place to present your art. Careful collection of contacts and the ability to make good long lasting relationships around the world using the internet is a powerful tool. Accumulating these contacts needs to be carefully done. There is utterly no sense sending information about your work unless it’s going to be looked at, so do research those you wish to inform. Start with your current clients and friends. Design a methodical sales and PR program. Stick with it, changing it as needed.

As well consider applying to be put on municipal public art call lists, and search out free public art mailing lists. This gives you the opportunity to scope out which opportunities are appropriate for you and your style. Generally these opportunities are presented as RFP’s or RFQ’s (requests for proposals and requests for qualifications).

People who are interested in you work when you present it on Facebook and LinkedIn are likely contacts for you to follow up on. These and other social media platforms present unlimited opportunity for making valuable contacts.

And of course you need a professional web site. This is often your first opportunity to present yourself, so don’t blow it. Have a really professional website. Don’t do it yourself, get a designer who knows what they are doing. Check out a lot of other websites and show your designer the ones you like. I use my website as a portfolio and can show it anywhere there is a computer or a smart phone, though mostly I send people to it.

Everything I have just written about would seem self evident and common sense, but it never hurts to review your approach. All it takes is lots and lots of work.

It seems to me after 40 years as a professional sculptor, that it is tenacious and persistent marketing which yields results. There are no shortcuts unless you happen to be at the right place at the right time. And that’s never happened to me.

To read more about Jock and his work, check out these websites:

Sculpture: www.jockhildebrand.com
SculpturesPacific Magazine: www.sculpturespacific.com (our sculpture magazine)
About Sculpture, my blog: https://artisjock.wordpress.com

Why do communities make application difficult? How should public art committees ask for sculpture?

I think this needs to be widely circulated. It’s is a reprint from an article written by my wife, Carmen, in one of our SculpturesPacific magazine editions So, if you find the same difficulties as we do,  pass it along to the public art committee(s) that you deal with, and to other sculptors. Just cut and paste, email, tweet, blog or whatever.
AN IDEAL ARTIST CALL
Through our work (Jock as sculptor of primarily monumental size pieces, and me managing the business side of making art) we respond to many requests for qualifications (RFQ’s) and have also put a few out for our clients. Almost every time we compile our material for submission, we hear ourselves saying, “I wish there was one standardized way in which these are written.” The problem is that in a general sense, everyone asks pretty much for the same information, such as images of past works, a current CV, sometimes an artist statement, etc., but there is no standardized template. Some want 10 images, some up to 20, some want them horizontal, some vertical, some want them labeled this way…some that way… some at this dpi, some at that dpi, some at a particular file size… you get the picture.
So here, for whatever it’s worth, is our ‘in a perfect world’ scenario:
An ideal artist call:
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all prepare a portfolio that contained the basic information, so that all we need to do is write a cover letter and maybe swap some images in and out for each submission? It doesn’t take much. If a standardized outline for public art call submissions were to be created, our portfolio might include:
• 10 images, minimum 300 dpi, 1280 kb file
• Images labeled with: Artist name, title of the piece, year completed, location, and selling price;
• A current CV;
• 3 references – name, phone # and e-mail;
• Submitted electronically with a cover letter, RFQ # in the subject line.
DONE !!!
Ok – now I’ll get back to the RFQ’s sitting on my desk to figure out if they want the images horizontally and at what dpi, labeled with first name last, or last name first…reference names or reference letters…annotation separate or with images…as a PDF with specified file size, or not…snail mailed or e-mailed…??? Sigh …

Jock Hildebrand has been a working sculptor for more than 40 years and has contributed to public art around the world with his work. Jock is the senior editor and founder of SculpturesPacific Magazine. He has organized and worked in many international sculpture symposium and was the founder of the 2002 Okanagan Thompson International Sculpture Symposium (with a budget of 2.2 million dollars) .
Sculpture by Jock Hildebrand
SculpturesPacific Magazine

Is it time to demand that media and curators review works of public sculpture?

Is it time to demand that media and curators review works of public sculpture?

Buckets of public money are spent on public art in our communities and tremendous amounts of prominent public spaces are devoted to it, yet it gets no or little curatorial attention and the media ignores it unless there is something controversial about it. Many communities have invested heavily in their public art collections. Some pieces cost in excess of a million dollars. I for one am very happy for it, and the public is richer for it.
Literature, performing arts, gallery openings, art films, all seem to be located in various ways in the media. Book reviews and movie reviews are featured in the newspapers. Fashion is closely followed by the media, so why not pubic art, a much more pronounced public presence?
Media covers public art if something goes wrong in the choice of placement, subject matter, or the common perception of the piece. This kind of negative coverage tends to lead to a negative perception of public art in general. I think a fair and balanced view ought to be presented. Public art can be extraordinarily sophisticated, rich and textured. Unless the community has access to this kind of background information, they have lost a considerable amount of the value of the artwork.
The media could include in their arts section articles on new pieces of sculpture in those communities with a public art program. Public art is an investment, therefore local and national media should cover these installations. The media could give information on the artist via interviews, as well as present the subject matter and background on similar or reflected works, etc. The experience for the audience would be richer. The public would be educated about the depth and scope of their public art collection, the sculptors who created the pieces and the rationale behind the creation.
Curators as well have missed a rich opportunity. Local curators associated with a local public art gallery should review the collections of the community as part of their mandate. Curators could give a little time for the public to digest the piece before they write about it and give the media the opportunity to discover public reaction and perception. This will provide an informed viewpoint for those who are looking for an academic viewpoint, as well as a discerning and curious public. Surely the local collection should be of concern for the local curator. Curators, pick up this opportunity!
It seems the media and curators have failed the public in their lack of coverage in the public art field.

Jock Hildebrand has been a working sculptor for more that 40 years and has contributed to public art around the world with his work. Jock is the senior editor and founder of  SculpturesPacific Magazine. He has organized and worked in many international sculpture symposium including the 2002 Okanagan Thompson International Sculpture Symposium (with a budget of 2.2 million dollars), of which he was the founder.

Sculpture by Jock Hildebrand

SculpturesPacific Magazine