Purpose of Award
The purpose of the Art Jewelry Forum Artist Award for an Emerging Artist is to acknowledge promise, innovation, and individuality in the work of emerging jewelers and to advance the career of a promising artist.
Amount of Award
An unrestricted cash award of $7500 will be given each year.
- The winner is expected to travel to attend the award presentation.
The winner will be given a one-year “Arts Professional” membership to AJF.
Entry Criteria
Applicants must meet the following criteria:
- Maker of wearable art jewelry.
- Must have completed academic/professional training and be out of school. Date of graduation must be at least one year but not more than six years prior to the date of submission of the application; self-taught artists may apply.
- Work submitted must have been unsupervised; work from BFA/MFA shows may NOT be submitted.
- Must not have had or be scheduled to have a solo exhibition at a commercial gallery or a museum.
Application Requirements and Instructions
The following must be submitted via the Café website (www.callforentry.org):
- Current resume (one page)
- Artist statement relating to the work submitted, approximately 200 words
- Brief description of why you perceive yourself to be at an emergent point in your career and how you anticipate the award will impact the course of your career, approximately 100 words
- A maximum of 10 digital images showing six to seven pieces of work. Images must be Baseline standard JPEGs under 1.8 MB (see the Café website for other specifications)
- One of the images must show a piece being worn
- One of the images must show the back of a piece
- Each image must include full caption information
Name of artist, Title of piece, Year produced, Materials, Dimensions
Applications must be received by midnight June 30, 2013.
The following must be included in the application:
- Have you had solo exhibition in a commercial gallery or a museum? (If yes, then not eligible.)
- When did you complete professional training? Indicate BA, MFA, or self-taught with month and year graduated.
- Are you currently enrolled in professional training? (If yes, then not eligible.)
- Are you represented by a gallery? If yes, include name of gallery.
- How did you learn of this competition? (e.g. instructor, posting at school, curator, gallerist, SNAG News, magazine [specify], collector, former award winner)
Images (except for those of back of piece and piece being worn) must be high-resolution (300 dpi or higher TIFF file) and immediately available for AJF for use in print media.
Jurors
The jury will consist of three persons. Two jurors must be AJF members and one will be from outside the United States. To achieve balance and diversity of viewpoint/opinion, jurors could include:
- 1 curator or educator
- 1 artist (previous year’s winner, unless unable to serve)
- 1 collector
Judging
Jury review will take place in July/August 2013. Work will be judged on originality, depth of concept, continuity of design, and quality of craftsmanship.
There will be three rounds of review; those scoring highest in the first round of individual juror review will be moved to the second round for group jury review.
In the second round, five (5) artists will be shortlisted. The shortlisted artists will be notified by telephone and email. The names of the shortlisted artists and an image of their work will be posted on the AJF website two weeks prior to announcing the winner.
In the third round, the winning artist will be selected from the group of five shortlisted artists. The winning artist will be notified immediately by telephone and email.
All applicants will be informed by email after the winning artist is notified.
The winning entry will be announced in the AJF newsletter and on the AJF website in September 2013.
Post-Award Promotion
The winning artist will be profiled on the AJF website under Grants > Artist Award Recipients. He or she also will be promoted to the AJF membership and the media via press release.
The winning artist will deliver a brief presentation at a major art fair, where their work will be prominently featured by an AJF member gallery. A written copy of the presentation will be available on the AJF website under Grants>Artist Award Recipients.
One year after the award, the artist will be interviewed to discuss the impact of the award on their career. The interview will be posted on the AJF website.
The winner will participate as a jury member for the following year’s award.