Playing the devil's advocate here and giving a museum viewpoint.
When we do our student show, we do not allow students/parents to put value
on the work because they could easily cost us a good deal of money. We carry
a set amount of insurance covering 4 galleries (3 at SAMFA & 1 at CAM), and
a sculpture garden. If we go over that amount between the two museum sites,
we have to add a rider to the insurance and they can be expensive. We plan
ahead for exhibits and include in the budget for each exhibit the cost of
any riders. Also the insurance is supposed to cover the appraised market
value of the artwork (crass I know but that is them not us). If something
happened to the student's work, and a claim was filed the insurance company
might view that as fraud.
It isn't that we don't value the students' work, we do. Actually the high
school students sold several of their pieces to local people as a result of
the exhibit. We just can't afford a surprise expense, especially since the
ceramics exhibit at SAMFA always has a very high total value - lots of
different pieces much more than a 2-D exhibit because not having to stay
with the walls. BTW we have never questioned an artist's value of his/her
work, but we have turned down exhibits that were over valued, because of the
associated costs.
Kimberly Herbert (kimberly@wcc.net)
CAM Administrator
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts/Children's Art Museum
-----Original Message-----
From: KPRS [mailto:kprs@cybernex.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 8:11 PM
To: ArtsEdNet Talk
Subject: Re: A&E Impressionist Competition...???
Re: 'contests'
Students work is typically devalued because of their age. We have a local
museum
which puts on a rather impressive art show. Each year there are about 350
entries, and the jury only picks 40-50 (this is high school work). When the
students bring their work to be juried they have to fill out all kinds of
forms,
and on one form there is a question as to the value of the piece. One of my
students calculated how long the piece took, and put a value of $1,000 on
it,
which I endorsed whole heartedly. (The piece eventually made the cut and
the
museum actually placed the piece against it's own wall with lighting). The
curators of the show were not 'amused' at the amount placed by the student,
and
took me aside and asked me if I could persuade the student to lower the
value. I
replied simply "If you don't want to know the value of the piece, don't ask
the
question". Had you are I done the piece, would we be questioned about the
value?
I don't think so.
