Applications for the MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival, the largest, nationally ranked arts festival in the country, will open on July 17, 2023 for the 2024 event.
With a high tradition of providing top-shelf services to artists, artist awards totaling $15,000 and hundreds of thousands of affluent Metroplex buyers, MAIN ST. continues to forge new ground in terms of increased sales for artists.
Fort Worth’s signature festival features corner booth spaces, diverse artist amenities including a complete hospitality area, Artist’s and Sponsor reception on Wednesday evening and the popular Awards breakfast on Friday. We also offer on-site storage, water bottles featuring refills of free chilled, U/V filtered H2O and a scheduled, stress-free load in process. Our promotional tools include an industry-best online gallery, full digital directory and a social advertising program appealing to a diverse and wealth-wielding public. Our social audience is well over 200,000. MAIN ST. is a prime candidate for your tour through Texas and Oklahoma.
Artist Application Details
Images:
- Five images are to be submitted for each application entered by the artist.
- Four images must be of individual pieces of a consistent body of work to be showcased during the Festival.
Booth Image:
- The fifth image must be of a single display booth of the artist’s work in an outdoor, daytime setting, shot full front (side to side and top to bottom), and not at an oblique angle.
- Those applying in the Emerging Artist category, reserved for those artists who have never juried into a large show previously and reside in the Metroplex specifically, or in Texas, may use a fifth image of work in place of a booth slide. Simply designate one image as, “Booth Slide,” and submit.
- We do not offer double booths at this show UNLESS the artist is juried into the show with two or more separate bodies of work; consequently, your booth image MUST be one of a single booth display, in an outdoor setting, full face front without any reference to the artist either with a name or with the artist in the booth shot. Double booth images will be rejected.
- The booth image must show overall continuity, scale and presentation of the body of work being submitted with this application. PLEASE NOTE: if work inconsistent with your application is present in the booth image, it will NOT serve as tacit approval to show that work at the show. The booth shot will NOT be used to determine work approved to be displayed at the festival – only the jury images will be used for this determination.
- Please be sure you do not reference either your name or your company name in your booth image. Please do not submit an image with either you or your collaborator in the booth when the image is taken. This is a blind jury – names are not disclosed to the jurors. If you or your name appear in your booth image your application will be rejected.
- NOTE: Failure to follow booth image parameters may delay your application or cause questions during the jury process, which may not allow enough time for a full, fair and complete review of your work.
- Any changes to images we request will be made by email, and must be completed by the deadline to be considered for the show. Applications coming in late in the process may not leave us enough time to review the application.
The purpose of the booth image is to show the artist has a complete body of work matching or in keeping with the body of work represented in the first four images, and helps identify scale of the work. In addition, any work outside of the medium and context of the images submitted that may appear in the booth shot will not be considered as being accepted by the jury simply due to the fact it has been included in the booth image.
For image tips please go here.
Artist’s Statements:
The short artist’s statement is read aloud to the jury as images are shown. Please note processes as well as materials used, and 100 characters isn’t much, we agree; however, make it your best 100 characters and try to avoid abbreviating or using txt style as it may delay the reading and result in an abbreviated reading.
The longer artist’s statement is mandatory, and it provides more information to better understand process, philosophy and methodology. This statement may be utilized both during the review process (we review every application prior to the jury to check information, look at the images and double check category selection), and may also be referred to during the jury process. The more information we have the more complete our review process may be.
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. Work that starts with a photograph and manipulated by digital means must be entered in either the Mixed Media or 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: Designed specifically for artists who have no experience exhibiting and selling their artwork, based in Texas (emphasis on Metroplex artists). If you have participated in MAIN ST. prior to this date as an Emerging Artist, you will not be eligible to participate again as an Emerging Artist. The application procedure and application fee 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 from veteran artists. Artists meeting the requirements of residency and frequency of juried show participation may apply in this category with any genre of work, and will be juried and scored among only those who have applied in this category. Final invitations will be made based on scores within this category, as well as an intent to have a broad mix of genres. Artists may only apply as an Emerging Artist Program or as a regular Exhibiting Artist – they may not apply for both. Artists applying under both the Emerging Artist program and the regular artist program will have their Emerging Artist application returned to them automatically. Artists must be a resident of Texas, with priority is given to artists residing in Fort Worth/Metroplex area. The 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.
- 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. No belts or buckles or straps or bells on straps or any other leather accessory item is allowed in this show unless those items are specifically shown in the jury images (not the booth slide) and approved by the jury. This is non-negotiable and a consistent challenge to this by artists in the past is causing us to highlight this in our prospectus.
- 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.
- 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, photocopy and/or offset reproductions, will be rejected. Printmakers are encouraged to do their own printing which has been processed by the artist, or under his/her direct supervision. Printmakers are required to disclose both their creative and printmaking processes.
- 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.
Jurors will be announced in August, 2023.
