Among the Least Personal Rejections

Reneé and I submitted another proposal on behalf of our summer exhibition, Our Creature Comforts. This would be the second rejection letter on this one. Of all the letters, this is probably the most efficient for the venue, but among the least personal to us the artists. Having been on both sides of this process, I completely understand the desire for efficiency, but still... even if you have to be short and sweet as the last one was, I'd prefer 1 sentence to 10 that everyone got.

“City of North Springfield
Cultural Arts Department

December 28, 2006

Dear Renee Decator and Suzanne Clements (Our Creature Comforts)

Thank you for submitting a North Springfield City Gallery application. The City Gallery is located at the North Springfield Performing Arts and Springfield Area Convention Center Complex. A panel comprised of working artists and visual art professionals reviewed the application and made the selection as indicated below. The quality and quantity of the applications made the task a challenging one.

____ Your application was accepted. Please complete the enclosed Exhibition Agreement and return to the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department.

_X__ Your application was not accepted. Please consider the annual and group exhibition opportunities offered throughout the year.

Notes:

Thank you again for your interest in promoting the visual arts in Springfield. For questions contact John Smith directly at 555-555-5555.

Sincerely,

The Director”

e-Jection

In the last two weeks I've submitted my work for consideration to 12 galleries. I received one reply back today from a location in Southern California. Short, but sweet:

"Thanks Suzanne but I do not see it as a fit for my gallery."

It's hard to gauge what exactly may be a good fit from such a far distance, I'm just happy for the response as sometimes you never hear back on digital submissions.

A Wayward Rejection that Wasn't

This past September I sent two exhibition proposals to a desirable Florida gallery near the Atlantic Ocean. The first proposal, which was for my two woman show “Our Creature Comforts” came back as a “Thank you, but no thank you.” Once that one arrived, I waited patiently for my own personal rejection letter to arrive. I checked my PO box every few days and nothing came.

Finally after about a month I called them yesterday morning to inquire just in case something was sent to me, but didn't make it. Yesterday afternoon they called me back and told me that they were holding onto my proposal materials just in case someone drops out. The curator said that they were very impressed with my work and felt it would work well as a solo show, but that there were only two available in 2007 - hence my position on the waiting list. I was told that 2008 should work and to definitely resubmit a proposal in September for that calendar year.

I guess you could count it as a near miss, but just getting that feedback was great. My calendar is marked for September and you can bet that I'll be contacting them again if I don't hear from them this year.

On a side note, I've submitted my work to 10 additional galleries which means more rejection letters will be heading this way so stay tuned.

Two Rejection Letters for the Price of One

"Hi Suzanne,

Thank you for showing interest in our gallery. Unfortunately, the gallery has changed hands and we are now known as another gallery. At the moment we are not interested in representing realistic figurative work. However, we will keep your images on file if a show of that genre comes up. Please keep up the great work.

Happy Holidays,

Gallery Manager"

And number two...

"Dear Suzanne Clements,

Thank you for your interest in our gallery.

We are afraid that we are not able to select your work for exhibition at our Gallery. This year we have received an unprecedented number of high quality submissions. Unfortunately not all the work that we like can be shown.

We wish you the very best in your pursuits, artistic and otherwise. Sincerely,


The Owner"

Juried Show No No

"December 2006

Dear Artist,

I am sorry to say that your work was not selected for the upcoming Emerging Artists exhibition and Internet promotion. Please don't be discouraged as there was a lot of great work submitted it is impossible to include all the deserving artists.

You can view the winners of the competition on the web site. They will soon be posted on the results page.

Also, the 2007 Emerging Artists will be featured on the Limner website. The work may be seen on our website.

If you are not on the mailing list already I will add your email address and let you know of upcoming events and publication opportunities with Direct Art. If you do not want to be on the email list, just email back when I send the first notice and let me know so I can take you off.

Thank you for taking part in Emerging Artists and good luck with your continuing work.

Sincerely,

The Owner"

It looks like they truly only selected a small handful of artists to participate. If they had even just 100 entries it would have been tough odds. I'm certainly interested to see the results of their jury though. The artist's works should be online in February.