Artists receive acceptances or rejections into juried exhibitions, but most of the times, they know little about the jurying process. What really happens between application and notification time is the subject of this article.
Once the deadline takes place, all the submitted paintings are set up for individual scoring. A panel of six artists and art connoisseurs score each painting in a scoring scale 1 to 7 with 7 being the top score. Each juror views the art work on their computer screen. The size and the medium for the paintings are displayed, but the name of the artist is not provided making the jurying a blind process. Forty two (42) is the maximum score a painting can received. This is very rare considering the unique perspectives from six different judges. For example, in the NOAPS Fall 2014 International Online exhibit there was not even one painting scoring 42 points. The majority of the top paintings fell between 36 and 38 points. The Top 150 were selected this way out of 709 entries. Multiple entries were accepted for a few artists when scoring in the very top threshold, above 38.
The Top 150 accepted paintings are then moved to a second round of jurying to be performed by the judge of the event. This judge selects the awards for the exhibit. Tom Tierney, the judge for NOAPS Fall 2014 International Online exhibit commented: “Thank you for the chance to view all these beautiful works. I could have flipped a coin on a few selections!!!”

It is definitely not an easy job to make the selections. Judges in the past have described the experience as “demanding, exciting, extremely educational, and a must in an artist or art historian career.” “It is invaluable to be able to see each painting in the context of comparison with 700 other paintings!”

Thank you to all the six jurors in the panel and to Tom Tierney, the judge for NOAPS Fall 2014 International Online Exhibit. Thank you as well to all the participating artists and their 709 paintings. It is not an easy job to select just a few among the many beautiful art pieces.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP 150 PAINTINGS ACCEPTED INTO NOAPS FALL 2014 INTERNATIONAL ONLINE EXHIBIT AND TO THE AWARD WINNERS.

You went through two rounds of jurying and the eyes of seven individuals to get there!