Jurying Handmade Art Submissions Pt. II

Are you curious what it is like to Jury in a new product at the Portland Saturday Market?

For current members of the market, when a new product line is launched, if its completely different from what the seller had juried in initially (and been selling at the market) that member is responsible for submitting a "New Product Line" application.

Heres a little sneak peek to give you an idea of the process:

Applicant: Jan Christine (professional book binder, active member of the PSM for many years)
New Product Line: glass plate settings with traditional prints

above is a picture of the committee visiting Jan last weekend - below is a picture of the application she filled out and submitted to the office last week (you can click on any of these pictures to zoom in and see detail)

In the morning once all our booths are set up, 2 or 3 jurors will pick up the pile of new product submissions from the office and look around on-site for those sellers. The actual jurying consists of a quick friendly visit to take a look at the product. Once accepted the new product is available for sale in that booth. You can see on the form that we use that we use to show if the work is well handcrafted, safe and durable, and either pass or fail the product and sign the form.

Its all very professional and straight-forward - as well as supportive of innovation within our community of artists.

There are many different scenarios and circumstances that involve the volunteer jurying system, new product lines are one facet of a well-oiled system. The most obvious function of the committee is evaluating and accepting potential new artists to the membership, but this is clearly just one part.

for more information about being a volunteer on the jury committee at the PSM:

• check out this post ( http://leahglass.blogspot.com/2009/02/jurying-handmade-art-submissions.html)