Today I went to a lunchtime talk hosted by the New England Foundation for the Arts, concerning the topic of presenting your work for potential public art commisions. The focus was on photographing your work. If you can find out who is on a certain panel that will be looking at your work, it can help you to tailor your presentation.
Generally, it was everything we all should know about presenting artwork - professional photography and presentation are really important. It really does pay off to have a pro take your photos if you want to enter this venue. Since architects and landscape designers have entered the competition for public art, and are used to doing very clean and professional presentations to get clients, artists have to work especially hard to be competitive in this field.
But my take away is if you really want to go this route, try hard to get a small beginning commission or do a temporary piece in a local building or neighborhood, get really good photos, and look for the right artist calls in which your work seems to fit. If possible, connect with a landscape designer or architect to lend more credibility to your work.
Generally, it was everything we all should know about presenting artwork - professional photography and presentation are really important. It really does pay off to have a pro take your photos if you want to enter this venue. Since architects and landscape designers have entered the competition for public art, and are used to doing very clean and professional presentations to get clients, artists have to work especially hard to be competitive in this field.
But my take away is if you really want to go this route, try hard to get a small beginning commission or do a temporary piece in a local building or neighborhood, get really good photos, and look for the right artist calls in which your work seems to fit. If possible, connect with a landscape designer or architect to lend more credibility to your work.