Acceptance

I keep hearing people complain that art quilts are not accepted in the “real art world”. Unfortunately in the “real art world” art is a commodity like anything else with the name brand always commanding a higher price than the same thing with a kroger/safeway/tesco/woolworth generic label.    In which case, of course , you actually have to taste it, live with it, imbibe it and be very knowledgeable and experienced to be able to tell if it’s a new, different and amazing baked bean, or just a copy of all the other baked beans out there.

So why are so many art quilts shows being judged by art quilters?  Surely if we want to see how our work holds up against some Platonic ideal of art then we should have jurors who are acknowledged experts within the Art World as a whole.  People who have spent many years looking across and examining all kinds of art, who have a breadth and depth of vision – these people would probably not be practicing artists themselves but critics or teachers or writers or  curators  or art theoreticians.  Most good practicing artists are usually very focused on their own work and very good at assessing work very like their own, but perhaps not so good at looking at the field in general.

I look forward to the day when a major art quilt show has the courage to choose  a panel of jurors who are from outside the art quilt world  - they can certainly have one or two art quilters as consultants people who know who’s teaching what to whom and so on – but let’s have some Fresh Eyes on the scene!

and, if you have been, thanks for reading!! 
and – let me know what you think!    Elizabeth