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Visual Arts Policies
We will begin accepting applications on July 15, 2008, and our deadline for applications is 11:59 PM, October 31, 2008 (Halloween!). Notifications will go out shortly after our jury session, (open to the public) scheduled for November 15 and 16, 2008.
Unless specifically requested otherwise, all notifications and information regarding the Festival will be made via email to the artist's email address as specified in his or her Zapplication profile. It is important to note that any changes to email addresses must be updated on Zapplication in order to receive timely and important information from this show.
Overview
The staff, volunteers and sponsors of the MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival cordially and sincerely invite you to participate in the Top Art Event in Texas, ranked 8th in the United States, during our 23rd Annual Celebration, April 17 - 20, 2008. Scroll down this page for more information about our Festival, and about the policies and procedures of our application process.
Presented by Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives, Inc. MAIN ST. has a twenty-two year history of attracting tens of thousands of people annually during the four-day visual arts, entertainment and cultural event. MAIN ST. showcases a nationally recognized fine art and fine craft juried art fair, live concerts, performance artists and street performers on the streets of downtown Fort Worth.
We invite a total of 200 artists to the show, with approximately 25 award artists from the previous year. Approximately 1300 applications were received in 2008. We project our images at our jury using state-of-the-art Dell projectors direct from the electronic files.
We are known for our friendly, southern hospitality, for our promotional prowess and for delivering a buying public to the doorsteps of our participants. We are also a tough show - four days, long hours - but we make every effort to ensure your experience with us is as smooth and effortless as possible so you can concentrate on what you do best: sell!
Mission of the MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival
The mission of the MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival is to provide, free to the public, the highest quality visual and performing arts set against the background of historic Fort Worth. The Juried Art Fair is designed to attract a diverse selection of quality fine art and fine craft selected by qualified jurors and to promote and market selected artists and their work as the focal point of the festival. The proceeds directly fund infrastructure services, downtown development and free annual special events for citizens and visitors of Fort Worth.
The 2009 dates of MAIN ST. closely follow those of two other top Texas Art Fairs: the Austin (Texas) Fine Arts Festival, the Woodlands Arts Festival and the Bayou City Art Fair in Houston.
Why Fort Worth?
The prominence of Fort Worth's Old West history is evident on nearly every corner of the city. However, Fort Worth has grown by leaps and bounds in the area of arts and culture. And for the past 23 years, MAIN ST. has acted as one gateway to Fort Worth's cultural growth. Historically "where the west began," MAIN ST. now escorts Fort Worth in thriving culture by welcoming and bringing together people from all sides of life - the cowboys and the artistic mavens.
The streets of downtown are filled with fascinating sights and sounds as more than 500 fine artists, dancers, performance artists, musicians, exhibitors and food vendors take part in the four-day celebration. Two hundred juried artists line the historic red bricks of Main Street weaving a diverse blend of texture and shape down the "magnificent mile" of visual art booths, performance stages and intriguing characters to create an explosion of color against the turn-of-the-century buildings and modern skyscrapers of downtown Fort Worth.
Downtown Fort Worth features many of the area's finest eateries, including Reata Restaurant, Del Frisco's Steakhouse, Mikado Sushi, Pirahna's Sushi and PF Chang's, all in close proximity to historic Main Street. We realize that some of our artists may be more inclined to party rather than rest after a hard day of selling! Therefore, our after hours environment is second to none in Texas, and provides the perfect setting for fun, great entertainment and dancing in a safe and dazzling environment.
Why Exhibit at MAIN ST.?
First, we deliver financial results to our artists. Over $6 million dollars in art has been identified as being sold at this event each year by our 2006 Economic Impact statement (see it on our website). Second, More than 1,200 volunteers help run the free, four-day event, many of them devoted to our "stars of the show." A dedicated team of ART volunteers (Artist Relations Team) are dedicated to making sure our artists are treated right. We offer our artists:
- lunches made to order, ordered in advance and delivered right to your booth;
- an air-conditioned hospitality center;
- artist parties and breakfasts, including evening invitations to our Skybox Hospitality Suite overlooking the Main Stage;
- booth sitting;
- free basic electric (with additional electric available for a nominal fee);
- and a tremendous weather monitoring and communication system to "get the word out" to our artists in case of inclement weather.
Our new load-in system has made booth set-up a snap, where we work around your schedule...not ours. We also offer free RV parking three blocks away (unfortunately, we do not have free, close-in parking).
Our structured and fair on-site jury selects our invited artists, as well as our Merit Award Artists and Best of Show Artists. Merit award-winners each receive $750, and the Best of Show receives $1250. A total of $5,000 is set aside for these awards.
Important Time and Date Information
Show Dates: April 16 - 19, 2009
Artist Hours of Exhibition: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM on Thursday, 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM on Friday and Saturday, and 10:00 AM - 6:30 PM on Sunday.
ZAPPlication TM Online Application Process Opens: July 15, 2008
Application deadline (ZAPP online application): 11:59 PM Central Time, October 31, 2008
Artist Pre-Jury Reception and Zapp Preview: 6:00 PM Central Time, November 14, 2008 at the Blackstone Hotel (Courtyard by Marriott)
Artist Jury (using ZAPP, open to the public): November 15 and 16, 2008 at the Blackstone Hotel (Courtyard by Marriott), 601 Main Street, Fort Worth, TX
Acceptance notification, contract and Artist Guide e-mailed: November 17, 2008
Accepted artists posted on Website: December 1, 2008
Artist registration packet and booth fees: Must be postmarked by Monday, December 15, 2008
Last day to cancel with refund: February 1, 2009
Artist Guide emailed: March 3, 2008 (check out our 2008 website by clicking here)
Load in: April 15, 2009
Festival dates: April 17- 20, 2008
Artist Awards Ceremony and Brunch: Friday, April 18, 2008, 8:00 a.m
Fees
A non-refundable jury fee (to cover jury expenses and administrative
overhead) of $30.00 is required for each entry form/category submitted
(checks payable to “DFWII").
Upon receipt of an acceptance letter, the selected artist is
required to return a check or money order for $445.00 to secure their
booth space (credit cards will also be accepted both at our office and
through Zapplication.org). 100 corner booth spaces are available for an
additional $100.00. All monies are deposited upon receipt. Each artist
receives 200 watts of electricity included in their booth fees. Any
electricity used over and above the minimum is charged at
$30.00/200watts. NOTE: Application Fees received over 1100 applications will be applied directly to the cost of the Artist Booth Fee. This past year, we reduced the fee to $430 ($15.00 savings) as a result of the additional 200 applications.
Jury Procedure
The jury session will be open to the public. We require proper decorum during the jury process so as not to disturb the jurors. The dates are November 15 and 16, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, at the Blackstone Hotel/Courtyard by Marriott, 601 Main Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102. The category viewing order will be determined randomly. Round 1 is Saturday. Round 2 is Sunday. Notification will be made by 11:00 PM on Monday, November 17.
A reception will be held the evening of Friday, November 14, for the purpose of welcoming all visiting artists and previewing the slides to be shown during the jury itself. This will be a non-stress environment for viewing and networking.
A five to seven member panel will review images submitted by the artists and rank them for consideration. Images are projected on 48" x 48" screens by state-of-the-art Dell projectors directly from digital media. Our jurors for 2009 will be announced by September 1, 2008. Our 2008 jurors were:
- Les Slesnick, Artist, Photography (2006 Award Winner)
- Lewis Tardy, Artist, Sculpture (2007 Best of Show Award Winner)
- Jeffrey Cannon, Artist, Pastels (2007 Award Winner)
- Vila Hariri, architect and urban designer with the City of Fort Worth, currently serving on the Fort Worth Arts Council and is working on the Public Art Plan for the City of Fort Worth.
- Marian Millican, Associate Professor of Architecture, University of Texas at Arlington
IMPORTANT: The identities of artists are not disclosed to jurors. Please be sure that there is no reference to your name or your company in your booth image.
The jury will review each artist’s set of images. These images, submitted by each artist through their Zapp account, are downloaded from the locked Zapp storage server directly onto Compact Flash digital media cards. These cards are transported to the jury site and plugged directly into five ROKU media computers and shown simultaneously in a horizontal grouping. We use five Dell 4100 projectors and five brite-white screens. Each image will have a final projected size of 4' x 4'.
The image information statement and image descriptions provided on the application will be made available to the jury - they are typically not read aloud. Jurors will be invited to discuss each artist’s work during the review process.
Each artist is scored by jury members on a scale of yes-no-maybe in the first round, creating a ranked group of artists in each category deemed qualified to advance to the second round. Our scoring for the second round is on a 1 - 7 scale. The top scorers in each category receive an invitation to the show.
An additional 50+ artists are retained to comprise a waiting list of alternates. Our progression from the invited list to the waiting list is based strictly upon scores received in that category.
Decisions of the jury panel will be final.
The director of the show has the right to invite up to six artists at his discretion.
Notification
Upon completion of our jury, we will send emails by the end of the day on November 17 to all artists letting them know of their status. Contracts will also be emailed to invited artists, along with a link to our online Artist's Guide. You will be asked the question in your Zapplication account application as to whether you would prefer to have the Artist's Guide mailed to you as well in hard copy form.
The status of each artist will also be posted to his or her Zapplication account. We will not send letters - all communication will be by email.
Invited artists, along with their selected images and contact information, will be posted to the MAIN ST. website.
Policies
The following policies and regulations have been established by the MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival to ensure quality and integrity of process, presentation and patron experience:
- All artists represented on the entry form must personally attend their exhibit and must be present during the entire four days and exhibit hours posted for the public. The Festival is compassionate towards working, collaborative artists who experience honest family hardships as a result of this policy. Collaborating artists wishing an exemption from this policy should contact the Director, prior to applying, who will provide specific requirements for exemption.
- Exhibiting artists are required to show photo identification at check-in and on each day of the Festival.
- Works exhibited must be consistent with images submitted by artist(s).
- All work submitted and exhibited must be original, hand-crafted work produced by the artist and may not be the result of work by any person other than the artist(s) applying, or from commercial kits, molds, patterns, plans, prefabricated forms or other commercial methods.
- Collaborating artists are permitted; however, any representation other than a true, hands-on artistic collaboration will not be tolerated, and artists who fall outside of this parameter need not apply (collaborators participate in the creative and mechanical process – they are not assistants). Collaborating artists may exhibit only their collaborative work(s).
- Artists may apply in multiple categories and may also submit separate bodies of work in the same category. Separate Zapp application, images, Image Statement(s) and jury fee(s) are required for each category or body of work entered. Artists selected in more than one category or body of work may apply for a double booth. If an artist elects to apply in the Emerging Artist category, he or she may not apply in any other category.
- Exhibiting artists will be required to provide information to include a complete Artist Statement and a head shot or other shot to be shown to the public (digital files preferred). This information will be posted on an individually designed webpage, and will also be printed and laminated for the Exhibiting artist to display in a prominent place in the booth(s). Details on this will be provided to accepted artists. * It is the artist’s sole responsibility to identify the category and the bodies of work for which they would like to be juried.
- While there is not a predetermined number of slots available in any one category, the Festival will ensure balance by permitting no more than 20% of the total number of applicants accepted into a single category. Quality, unframed reproductions of two-dimensional originals, signed and numbered by the exhibiting artist are the only acceptable form of sales outside the original works. Artist must define “reproduction" or “limited edition" through their Artist Statement and each piece must be clearly and individually labeled as “reproduction." Reproductions and limited editions may be shown in a portfolio and may not occupy wall space in the artist’s booth.
- The Festival does not permit the sale of promotional items. Postcards, note cards, posters, or any other offset reproductions are not permitted.
- Tapes/CDs of exhibited instruments performed by the exhibiting artist may be sold along with an instrument, but not alone.
- Photographers and printmakers are encouraged to do their own printing. They are required to disclose their creative and printing process.
- Only artists accepted in the Jewelry category may exhibit or sell jewelry. Jewelry is not accepted in any other category.
- T-Shirts are not allowed to be sold.
- Artist is responsible for proper insurance and protection of work and set-up. The Festival will not be responsible for damage to work or set-up due to weather or unrelated incidents.
- Artists retain 100% of their sales and are responsible for the collection and reporting of all applicable sales taxes. Texas state tax is 8.25%.
- The Festival discourages any person from applying if they are inclined to misrepresent both their craft and the industry.
- All artists are expected to comply with all regulations and respect artistry standards. The Festival reserves the right and responsibility to ensure compliance of all regulations. This is not limited to refusal of any work to be exhibited that is not consistent with images submitted and work accepted for display by the jury. Failure to comply and cooperate with Festival officials will result in the exhibitor’s removal from the show and exhibitor’s right to exhibit in future shows may be refused.
Categories
Ceramics: All original clay and porcelain work other than jewelry is accepted in this category. No machine-made or mass produced work is permitted. If multiple pieces of the same design are displayed each piece must be signed.
Digital Art: This category includes any original work for which the original image, or the manipulation of other source material, was executed by the artist using a computer. Work in this category must be in limited editions, signed and numbered on archival quality materials. Traditional photographs taken through a digital media should apply in the photography category.
Drawing: Works created using dry media including chalk, charcoal, pastels, pencil, wax crayon, etc. or from the fluid medium of inks and washes applied by pen or brush are to be entered in this category.
Emerging Artist Program: Designed specifically for artists who have no experience exhibiting and selling their artwork. The application procedure and fees are the same as the regular show, however, upon acceptance emerging artists will pay a lower booth fee, have a tent provided and receive mentoring through the Arts Festival. Artists may only apply to the Emerging Artist Program or through the regular Application Process, but they may not apply to both. Artists who meet the requirements of the Emerging Artist Program are encouraged to apply, the Arts Festival reserves the right to pre-screen emerging artists to make sure they are a fit for this category.
Fiber: All work crafted from fibers including basketry, embroidery, weaving, tapestry and papermaking. No machine tooling, machine-screened patterns or other forms of mass production are permitted. No factory produced wearable items, regardless of additional modification or enhancement by the artist, may be exhibited.
Glass: No forms of mass production are permitted.
Graphics and Printmaking: Printed works for which the artist's hand manipulated the plates, stones or screens and which have been properly signed and numbered as a limited edition may be entered in this category. All giclee, photogravure, photocopy and/or offset reproductions, will be rejected. Printmakers are required to disclose both their creative and printmaking processes.
Jewelry: All jewelry whether the work is produced from metal, glass, clay, fiber, paper, plastic or other materials must be entered in this category. No commercial casts, molds or production studio work is allowed.
Leather: Includes all works from leather. No production studio work is allowed.
Metalworks: Includes all non-sculptural, non-jewelry works crafted from metals. No production studio work is allowed.
Mixed Media: This category includes works, both 2 and 3-dimensional, that incorporate more than one type of physical material to produce. Includes non-sculptural work as determined by the artist. Please note two previous categories, 2D Mixed Media and 3D Mixed Media, have been combined into one Mixed Media category.
Painting: Works created in oils, acrylics, watercolor, etc. are in this category.
Photography: Photographic prints made from the artist's original image, which have been processed by that artist, or under his or her direct supervision, are included in this category. Photographers are required to disclose both their creative and printing processes on prints which have been properly signed and numbered as a limited edition.
Sculpture: Three-dimensional original work done in any medium, including built up works in wood are included in this category.
Wood: Original works in wood that are hand-tooled, machine-worked, turned or carved are accepted in the wood category.
Booth Space
The Festival site utilizes two areas where artists’ booths are placed: On Main Street under Festival-provided pavilions and on Artist Square (parking lot in the middle of the Festival grounds) where the artist must provide his or her own canopy. The Festival-provided pavilions do allow artists to install their own tents under our pavilions for additional security. The side poles are 7'11" tall, and rise towards a peak of 9'. Artist tents may not be able to fit properly if located on a corner location due to the slope of the pavilion tent. These larger tents are secured to the brick of Main Street to offer more protection from the wind which can be aggressive at times.
Each exhibitor will be provided a space measuring 10’ deep by 10’ wide. Artists are to provide their own display structure, racks and/or tables in order to display their work in an outdoor environment, and must configure their interior space for maximum storage. Storage space on Main Street does not exist, and artists are advised to include some storage area within their 10' x 10' space. Storage on the sidewalk across from the booth must be limited to an artist's chair and minimal product, and cannot be placed along the sidewalk to impede traffic, or against the buildings. We do provide PODS for storage for an additional fee.
Booths are assigned in advance of the festival and restricted to the juried artist(s) and their work; however, the Directors of the show reserve the right to add additional artist areas such as Emerging Artists or other specialty areas in the show if deemed appropriate to the overall growth and development of the Festival.
Booths are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis as determined by either the USPS postmark of returned contract and booth fee, or the date and time of the online booth payment made through Zapplication. Invited artists from the previous year have priority in terms of booth selection; however, there is a deadline for that selection. Show balance is also considered. More details are provided to selected artists.
Double booths are not available unless one artist has been invited to show in two categories.
Awards
During the festival, onsite jurors will select one Best of Show and as many as seven Merit Award Winners. Cash awards totaling $10,000 are awarded to the winners in these categories.
About the Presenters
The MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival is presented by Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives, Inc. (DFWII), John C. "Jay" Downie, CFEE, Director. Jay has produced MAIN ST. from 1993 through 1998, and again since 2003. We have many wonderful volunteers who work collaboratively with a terrific group of artists to put together what we feel is one of the finest art shows in America.
Please be sure to visit www.zapplication.org, and login to establish your account.