Remember running to the mailbox as you waited with bated breath for your college acceptance letters; back in the day of actual snail mail? Sticking your hand in and pulling out all the letters, your fingers searching for the plump envelope. Fat envelope meant YOU ARE IN versus the dismay with that skinny envelope which gave you the bad news – rejection.
I recently had a big disappointment for a show proposal I had put together. It was for the ISE Cultural Center in NYC for their emerging curators program. Out of hundreds of proposals, I made it to the top ten and in speaking with them, I felt almost certain it was mine and I only had to send them a floor plan of the final art choices. I worked countless hours and hours to pull it together and was incredibly emotionally attached to the art. But then alas, I got that skinny envelope.
I’ve been thinking about that as I try to stay awake today, after being up last night until 1:30 a.m. hanging a show for the Anne & Mark’s Art Party (Click here for more details about the event on Saturday, May 8th – it will be FABULOUS! Please come!!) – a fundraiser for the Arts Council of Silicon Valley www.artparty2010.com
Even though the space is large, I had to leave out numerous pieces that just didn’t flow with the rest of the work. A group show tells a story and they have to all speak to each other.
As an artist, or entrepreneur, or really anything that involves competition, most of us are familiar with rejection, and learning how to deal with it. I know lots of artists that save all their letters, I sure do. Hey – at least is shows you are trying! Scott always reminds me that you have to make 100 sales calls to get one deal. But still, getting that skinny envelope and the dismay of not getting into a particular show or rejected by a gallery and getting a form letter just plain stinks.
Now I’m on the other side – The Rejector. As a curator, I have to pick and choose what is going to work and what isn’t, who I will represent and who I’m not interested in. Yeah, many times I do get sent really dreadful, amateurish work but I also get a lot of excellent work – but it just doesn’t fit my projects. It is really difficult for me to have to tell artists that they didn’t make the cut. But I’m learning and striving to have more straight feedback with artists about their work and I think it’s valuable for everyone involved. Finding out what they were thinking — like when an artist sent me a landscape painting for a show about objectifying men. HUH?!? That’s why explaining yourself/artist statements are so important, but that is a subject for another day. Now I just have to put on my big girl panties and call the artists to come pick up their “rejected” work…
