Annual Juried Show Update

Liz Conces Spencer: The Show Goes On
Becky Soria and I are hopeful about the Juried Show this year. We have been growing this big healthy baby, now a preteen, with the help of the artists in the community for more than a few years now. With the pandemic and its effect on all of us, we have hit the boll weevil, the pothole, the tear in the fabric, the muddy patch, the _________(fill in your own metaphor).

Artists, being the resilient weeds in the pavement that they are, continue to enter despite hiccups with the online entry system. Neither Bec nor I are especially fond of, or literate in, these technologies but we are soldiering on. To the rescue have come John Slaby, Joel Anderson, Harold Joiner, and Christie Coker, helping artists get their entries in and processed.

We certainly miss the good old days of the past 9 – 10 years when we have had the juror select the show from actual works of art. Although we realize the front-loaded hassle for artists to bring works in to be judged, it is also the most authentic way to select a show; art needs to be experienced in person, when possible, in order for its impact to be felt. Minus that, with digital entries we can judge dimension, scale, texture, and other qualities solely by the quality of the images submitted. Cameras have come a long way, but there is no experience like the physical one, and we long for the good old days.

I hope that artists will persevere and enter the show. Our juror this year, Wayne Gilbert, is a friend to artists. He is an artist himself, a man of soul and conscience. He will choose wisely and well.

Our charity partner Houston Junior Forum has deep fingers kneading the bread of the community. It funds many small organizations and is kept afloat through donations and a guild shop, paying forward friendship and opportunity.

​Bec and I, and the other Archway artists, will miss the big public reception that awards prizes and recognizes the selected works but the gallery will honor them at 6:30 p.m. on July 5 when our announcement video drops and reveals the show and winners; I hope you will all tune in. The show will be hung physically in the front gallery, to be viewed by appointment and during the gallery’s new open hours on weekends. As you may know, 50% of the sales benefit the selected artists, and 50% goes to the charity partner. All selected works will be featured on the gallery website and we will make every effort to connect them to new homes.

I thank everyone for their support of this event.

​Liz Conces Spencer