Last-Minute Notifications

There seems to be a growing trend among art galleries, museums and organizations towards waiting until the last minute to inform artists whether or not their work has been accepted for a show. This is not a good practice to engage in, especially when said artworks will need to be shipped or when delivery times were not clearly stated in the prospectus. I have encountered this more in the past couple of months than ever before. I submit to a lot of shows throughout the country and recently it seems that many institutions are getting back to the artists either much sooner or much later than ever before and a lot more deadlines are being extended which tends to cause last minute notifications.

I warned against this kind of behavior in my Art Submissions post. It bespeaks a lack of foresight on behalf of the institutions to allow artists only a few days to get their work to the venue in time for the show. The likelihood that not all of the artworks accepted will arrive in time is greatly increased when artists do not have enough time in which to ship their works or when drop off dates and times are changed at the last minute. This thus compromises the integrity of the show because works that were intended to play off of one another and form a cohesive experience may or may not be able to be included.

I can understand not wanting works to arrive far in advance if the gallery has no space in which to store them, but it is better to notify the artists and give them a window of a week or two in which works are due to arrive. Granted, some disorganized artists may forget to ship their accepted work when warned in advance, or they may disregard or not read the instructions and ship their work early. But not letting anyone know until the last minute ensures that all artists, including the responsible ones, will have difficulties getting their work there in time. It also increases the likelihood that artists will contact the venue about the status of their submissions.

I think technology may be influencing the growing trend towards late notifications. Email is a convenient and seemingly speedy way of connecting with people. But one cannot take it for granted that his/her emails will be received in a timely manner. Emails can be easily lost or delayed. Some artists do not check their email every day - even now, many do not own personal computers at home and check their email less often through other sources or at work. And a lot of artists have multiple email accounts and may or may not check all of them frequently. So for all that curators and coordinators can email artists about the status of their submissions pretty much down to the wire in the hopes that those accepted will know instantaneously of decisions made, they cannot be certain that all emails will be received.

There has also been a growing trend towards extending deadlines, which feeds into notifying artists at the last minute when the jurying process is pushed back while the scheduled show is not. I think that submissions may be down overall, and that by not getting enough people to participate, many institutions are forced to extend deadlines. However, this is a precarious position for a curator to put him/herself in because it means that he/she is not upholding the prospectus as written and because there is no guarantee that more artists will submit work even if the deadline is extended. Extending submission deadlines can irritate those who submitted on time, abiding by the rules and deadlines as laid out in the original prospectus, as much as they can encourage more artists to submit. Habitually extending deadlines can cause artists not to take them seriously, encouraging procrastination and presenting the institution in a less professional light.

Most importantly, institutions cannot afford to forget that accepted works may need to be shipped in time for the show, which can still be a slow process. Sometimes it can take more than one attempt for a shipment to be received due to carriers trying to deliver packages at off hours, and multiple attempts at delivery will delay packages for as many days as attempts made. Artists should not be forced to front the cost of express air delivery to galleries that do not contact them enough in advance to allow for ground delivery. Institutions really need to give the artists at least a full week (5 business days) to get their artworks there - a couple of days over a holiday weekend just doesn't cut it.