Here Come the Judge!

As Managing Director of Taylor-Jensen Fine Arts I am often asked to judge art and art-related exhibitions. My activities over the past several weeks during August will serve as an example.

Beside assisting with the installation of ‘Facets of a Rectangle’ by the ‘SIX’ group – see our website ­– I have judged three events in the region. On Wednesday August 11th I joined nine other judges to select the winners of the Wai Arts Trust awards at Aratoi-Museum of Art and History, Masterton. The ten judges selected their favourites which were rated from 1 to 10 with #1 awarded 10 points and # 10, 1 point. The artwork receiving the highest number of points was declared the winner. One can see the judges’ choices at their website.

The last time I judged anything with 9 other judges was in Tokyo where we juried the first international ceramic exhibition in 1982. In Tokyo we selected the works we judged as best and brought them together for paring down to the final selection. It meant compromise, discussion and decision. It was an educational experience all around.

At the Wai Art Trust the judges chose 53 of the 119 works on display. Although we were allowed to discuss our choices with the other judges, few did. It has been suggested to me that this methodology ends up selecting mediocre work which has received a score total achieved by adding the mid-range points awarded by the judges. I shall have to look into this. The winner did win by a large margin though so there is some hope for this system. I would have preferred the judges to have to confer than the winners selected by simple addition!

On August 21^st, I had the privilege of being one of two judges who selected the prize-winners for the Rose City Quilter’s Celebration of Quilts, a huge exposition of the “needler’s arts” held every two years in Palmerston North. The task took the better part of six hours and was a really physical exercise – better than going to the gym for both the judges and the volunteers! Sitting or standing to view each quilt held up by a cadre of Rose City Quilters volunteers and kneeling or bending over to examine the workmanship and stitchery of those selected for review.

We looked at over 230 quilts – sometimes more than once due to categories such as size, type of quilting (machine or hand quilted), traditional or contemporary pattern. Then there was the quilt challenge based on a greeting card design with 20 quilts to examine and a further 22 quilts judged on behalf of the Orchid Society of New Zealand. Whew!! An incredible day! A big thank you to the show committee for allowing me this special opportunity. Hope I can do it again in two years.

The Bulls Rangitikei District Wear-A-Bull Arts Awards will be held at the Bulls Community Hall on Saturday evening August 28th. I will be joined by two other judges to select the winners of this local, home-grown version of the World of Wearable Arts. Having acted in this capacity in a previous year, I know how much fun the evening is for both the audience and the participants. For the judges though it is often a difficult decision as the originality, workmanship and modelling of an outfit are often at a very high standard. Intermingled with musical entertainment from local school groups and fed copious amounts of food and drink, this special evening is one of the highlights of an incred-a-bull year of community activity in the Bulls and Rangitikei District.

The Wear-A-Bull Arts evening is on this coming Saturday from 7PM. Come along and cheer on the designers.