With All My Heart

Originally uploaded by love not fear

Recently, I submitted this piece and this piece to the Missoula Art Museum’s art auction.

I’m not a very well known artist among “serious” art collectors in Missoula. I don’t expect my name will draw huge dollars in an auction. But, I think the work is good work, so, I submitted it. I paid the entrance fee, I spent several hours with the online entrance process.

I like a lot of the work the museum brings to Missoula, and I want to support the organization. I opted to donate 100% of the proceeds of the sale of my work to the museum, should my work be chosen for inclusion in the auction & then sell.

So, let’s say I got accepted. Let’s say the work sold for $500. Not unreasonable, I’ve sold work for more before, but these pieces are going for between $300- $500.

OK. So let’s say some other, more well-known artist gets his work accepted. His piece sells for $1,000. But he opts to donate only 50% of the proceeds of the sale to the museum.

Isn’t $500 five hundred bucks, no matter who it’s from?

Right.

Still, I didn’t expect to get in, because I know that “names” sell more than “art” sometimes, and I don’t have a “name” in the Missoula Art Scene.

All of that said, it was with great surprise that I read the form rejection letter, sent by email, without so much as a subject line. Seriously. No subject line.

And the letter didn’t tell me anything I could not discern from the artist call website. Was my quoted price too much? Too little? What can you specifically point to, John, that prevents the MAM from accepting my submission?

The snobbery of the Missoula Art Museum is sickening.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Marc,

Thank you for submitting to the Missoula Art Museum’s 38th Benefit Art Auction. Regretfully, your work was not accepted. The 2010 art auction will be held at MAM. While we are excited to present our annual fundraiser in our home, we cannot accommodate the same volume of guest as in the past. Due to this change we scaled back the number of art works accepted. This year was extremely competitive; the MAM Auction Jury reviewed over 200 works and selected 56 pieces for the live auction. We are humbled by the outpouring of support from artists such as yourself, and hope that the difficult choices that the jury made do not discourage you from supporting us in the future.

The Jury took into consideration a variety of factors in selecting art works including value of work, number of works required for auction, and variety of media. Every year has its own unique set of circumstances and we hope you will consider submitting again to this important fundraiser.

The auction exhibition is open from January 13 – February 25, 2009 with the Artini Auction on February 18 and the Gala Auction on February 27. Additionally, all auction works will be available online at www.missoulaartmuseum.org. We hope you will join us for these festivities! Once again, thank you for your submission, Marc.

On Behalf of the MAM staff and Board of Directors,

John Calsbeek
MAM Assistant Curator & Preparator
Auction Committee Co-Chair