Art Exhibitions - The Good The Bad And The Downright Ugly

Some art exhibitions are a great way to exhibit up and coming artist's work in a public forum. However, there are many traps for the unwary artist. One such trap is the business of "non-refundable" entry fees, being transformed into "application fees" or "assesment fess" after the selection process has closed. The artist is left in a situation where they have paid for something and received nothing.

Art Exhibitions - A Bad Experience

Coming back into painting after such along stretch out of it has left my memory a little faded about the ins and outs of entering art competitions and exhibitions.

I do remember getting paintings back with the backs torn, the frames broken, marks on the painting that I could not get off and string broken.

What I have recently been reminded of is the practice of entrants paying "entrance fees" for exhibits that they will not be accepted into, or exhibitions that are so overbooked that works are only going to spend the entire time in the store-room.

As far as I know in many other parts of business in Australia, if you pay for something and do not receive the service or goods, you are entitled to a refund or replacement of defective goods.

I think it is way past time for the proper government department to look into the way that exhibitions are conducted. Surely when people are planning an exhibition, especially ones that are long-standing and know on average how many entries they can fit into an exhibition (given they have size restrictions), they know how many entries to accept.

Banking an artist's money only to tell them, oh sorry, we didn't accept you, and by the way we are keeping your entry fee is not only insulting, but it feels like, smells like and surely must border on being like theft and deception.

Many artists are on limited incomes, we pay a lot for our materials and getting works all over the place for display is not only time consuming but also expensive. Some exhibits charge over $30 for "entry fees" for each work. In the small print say that these are non-refundable. I am wondering if this is even legal.

If they do not accept the entry, return the money, don't bank it first then decide.

I have had some experience with this only recently and it has been a big lesson as to who I exhibit with. I will be reading the fine print more carefully in future, I will be picking the exhibits with extreme care. I, like a lot of others, am on a small income and the money I recently lost has been significant. It will have to be made up elsewhere by cutting developing another work or exhibition I am entering.

One thing I am sure of is that I am now developing a "Black List" of places that will NEVER see my work being entered in future.

Janice Mills

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