A chief curator with more than two decades’ experience, a dedicated instructor of plein air and studio art, and a noted gallery owner (of Duthie Books fame) make up this year’s panel of jurors for the 28th Annual Sooke Fine Arts Show, which features over 375 pieces of juried original fine art.
The panel, composed of Toronto-native Michelle Jacques, newly-appointed chief curator at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV); Salt Spring Island gallery owner Celia Duthie of Duthie Gallery; and artist and painting instructor at the Vancouver Island School of Art and Design, Jeremy Herndl; were selected by the Sooke Fine Arts Society’s adjudication committee for their complement of experience and expertise in Canadian historical and contemporary fine art.
Artists residing on Vancouver and the province’s coastal islands have just one more month to submit work for adjudication before the June 9 deadline.
“What the (Sooke Fine Arts adjudication) committee tries to achieve each year in selecting jurors is ultimately to ensure works submitted across seven different categories—everything from paintings to jewellery—receive the attention to detail and understanding of the medium each deserves. We’re looking for a panel that can collectively sift out what they deem the finest work in the region,” explains the show’s Executive Director, Catherine Keogan.
Carefully selected from than two-dozen potential jurors, the 2014 panel will review high resolution images of works submitted online over four consecutive days in June. Jurors vote separately on each piece and submissions can sometimes go through more than three rounds of jurying before being accepted for exhibition.
“Before online submission coastal island artists would have made about four ferry trips just to have work considered,” says Bev Petow of the adjudication committee. “This new online process has allowed a much broader range of artists to participate. We had a record number of works submitted last year, with greater numbers of submissions coming from the more remote reaches of the islands, which goes to show just how much talent is here in our region — and deserving of recognition.”
Video tutorials and an informative FAQ section on the homepage (www.sookefinearts.com) can help. For artists requiring a little more assistance submitting online, Keogan says staff are more than happy walking artists through the process, step-by-step.
There’s always a cry of joy when you help complete a submission with, for example, she says, a less than tech-savvy 82-year-old artist with more than 40 years’ painting but near-zero online experience.
“It’s one of the most satisfying parts of this whole process,” she says.
Deadline for Submission: Monday, June 9.
Online Submission: www.sookefinearts.com
Accepted works announced: Tuesday, June 17.
Show dates: Friday, July 25 – Monday, August 4.