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2024 CALL FOR ENTRIES
April 17 entry deadline
October 5 & 6, 2024
4100 & 4200 blocks of Flora Place
St. Louis, Missouri
About the Fair
The Historic Shaw Art Fair is highly rated by artists for easy load-in/take-down, warm hospitality, a beautiful setting, hard-working volunteers and good sales. It is held in one of St. Louis’ finest historic neighborhoods — the Shaw Neighborhood. Stately homes along a tree-lined parkway provide a gracious setting for artists and visitors.
The Art Fair will take place on the same weekend as the Best of Missouri Market at the Missouri Botanical Garden — typically held on the first complete October weekend each year — which is within walking distance of the Fair.
The Art Fair is promoted to the entire metropolitan area via direct mail & email, online & other advertising, Web sites, and stories and interviews in the St. Louis media. Last year, 118 artists exhibited at the Art Fair, which was attended by over 6,000 visitors. We hope to include 120 artists for 2024.
ENTRY FEE: $30 – BOOTH FEE: $375 (includes $50 in refundable parking vouchers)
We will be sending notification via email to the address from your entry form. To insure correct delivery to your inbox, please add greg@gobdesign.com to your address book.
2024 SCHEDULE
- Deadline for online entry: April 17
- Email Notifications: Sent by May 15
- Final Payment: June 19
- Last day to cancel & receive 100% exhibition fee refund: July 20
- Last day to cancel & receive 50% exhibition fee refund: August 20
CATEGORIES & MEDIA
- Fine Art:
- Digital Art
- Drawing/Pastels
- Mixed Media
- Painting
- Photography
- Printmaking
- Sculpture
- Fine Craft:
- Clay
- Fiber Arts
- Jewelry
- Glass
- Wood/Metal
ELIGIBILITY & RULES
Eligibility: All entries must be the original, creative work executed by the artist. Not eligible for entry are mass-produced items, items made in “workrooms” and any items made from commercial kits or molds.
Rules: Each booth display must consist of the artist’s original, juried work. Artwork displayed at the Fair must be in the category/media submitted to and accepted by the jury. Non-original reproductions may be displayed and offered for sale, but may not constitute over 75% of the artist’s work for sale. Reproductions must be labeled as such and may not be hung or displayed as original work. All work must carry a selling price.
Artists must be present with their work during all Art Fair hours.
Photo I.D. will be required at check-in.
Enforcement: For the benefit of both artists and patrons, the rules described above will be strictly enforced. Any artist who does not comply completely with all rules will be asked to leave the Art Fair and will not receive a refund of their booth fee.
BOOTH SPACES
The fair is on the park/medium of 4100 & 4200 Flora Place with traffic runing east on one side and west on the other – so is between the lanes so to speak. The artists ring the park facing out onto the lanes. You are setting up on grass. The park is 50 feet across. The street is closed to vehicles or parking during the show, so becomes a wide “sidewalk” for visitors.
Traditionally booths are 10 x 10 feet. And as we set up on the grass of the park with many trees, we tend to allow as much elbow room as possible between booths. No one is tightly packed together like shows in the streets often are. As the park is wide (assume about 25 feet deep for each artists), some folks step back from the curb, or run a deeper tent in their allotted space, 10 w x 20 deep for instance, and some use the space behind for storing some items. The ground is not perfect, so bringing blocks/shims and/or adjustable stands/tables for display is recommended.
We do not provide electricity. Please consider bringing low-voltage lighting systems.
JURY & WAIT LIST
The jury is composed of three art professionals – often working artists and curator/gallery owners. Images are shown by medium. The four images of each artist are shown at one time. The jury does not know the artists’ names. Each entry is scored on a scale of 1–10 without using the number 5. Thirty is therefore the highest possible score. Usually, 18 is the minimum score for acceptance into the Art Fair. The cutoff score for a medium may be higher depending on the scores in that medium.
The event coordinator will “balance” the fair by setting the number of artists accepted in each medium depending on the quality of the scores in each medium; this means we do not accept the same number in each medium every year.
Some artists are unsure what category/medium to enter. Use your best judgement. The jury is instructed to score based on the artistic merit of each entry. We are not concerned with whether you entered in the category we might think you belong in. Your score is what matters.
The wait list will consist of a pool of artists whose scores qualify them for acceptance if cancellations occur. Wait-listed artists will be notified via email. The order in which people on the list will be called will depend on several factors including the medium and style of the artist who cancelled.
ONLINE APPLICATION & DIGITAL IMAGES
There is a $30 non-refundable jury fee. Artists must submit for jurying four digital images of work executed within the past three years. The images will be automatically named when they are uploaded. The images must reasonably represent the quality and nature of the work to be exhibited. Please send good quality images so the jurors can fairly evaluate your work. It is important to see the details in your work. Do not send an image of your booth. The jury will only see the four images of your work. Images of artists accepted as exhibitors may be used in promotional materials for the Fair. If accepted, the first image you upload will be used for your listing on our Web site.
REQUIRED IMAGE SPECIFICATIONS
Images must be submitted as baseline JPEGs; RGB color.
One dimension needs to be 1920 pixels either horizontal or vertical – maximum size being 1920 x 1920 pixels.
