BVAA Show Terms and Conditions

* All hanging paintings, photos, and other wall-based items MUST be properly wired with framing wire. Small, circular hooks or triangles that often come on Michael’s-style frames are not able to be used with our hanging system. The hanging wire should not be visible when the item is hung. Usually on frames one connects the wire to the frame 1/3rd of the way down from the top and tight enough that when on the hook the wire doesn’t pull above the frame top. How to Wire a Frame

* We used to state that all hanging art needed to be framed. We have updated this requirement given the range of modern options. Please read this updated notice. All hanging wall-based items need to have professional edges. For a photo, this often involves a matted frame. With the advent of printing photos on metal, canvas, and other surfaces, frames no longer apply. In those cases, the edges of those surfaces need to be of a finished nature. Similarly, the traditional for canvas-based paintings used to be to have all four edges of the canvas covered by a frame.  Now it has become more acceptable to use a “gallery-wrap canvas” where the four sides of the canvas are painted on and are part of the artwork. We accept art with finished edges, as long as those edges are painted as part of the overall design. We would not display art with rough / unfinished edges. For examples, view: What is Gallery Wrap Canvas Art?

* A work submitted to a BVAA show that involves judging cannot have been submitted to any previous BVAA show that involved judging, whether or not it won an award. It is fine if the work was shown at previous BVAA shows that did not involve judging. It’s fine if the work was shown at other groups’ judged shows.

* Works submitted to the BVAA must be original work created by the submitting artist.  All entries must contain copyright-free material or material released with consent from the original source. Unauthorized use of any copyrighted images, text, or other material will not be accepted.

* Artists submitting an application to a BVAA event grant the BVAA the right to use any and all information disclosed on the application or publicly available on the artist’s website, including the artist’s name, images of the works, and descriptions of the works, for purposes of promoting, describing, or reporting on the BVAA event. Artists grant this right for use in any media including, but not limited to: print, radio, television, web, and film. The BVAA will make every effort to insure that artist credit is given in all publicity.

* The BVAA reserves the right to photograph displays and artists at the event, and to use those photographs on websites, social media sites, brochures, calendars, and other materials. The artist still retain all rights to their work. All artists’ work will be credited by the BVAA where applicable and possible.

* Artists are responsible for pricing and sale of their works, for direct handling of credit cards if they wish, and with any return policies. All tax liabilities will be responsibility of all individual artists. For more information read Artists and Sales Tax.

* Standard BVAA commission on sales at BVAA events not held at the Uxbridge Gallery is 20%. For events held at the Uxbridge Gallery, item sales are governed by the Alternatives / Blackstone Valley Art Association Collaboration Agreement

* For events which involve judging, any attempt by a participant to influence the result or subvert the competition will lead to immediate disqualification.

* We take great care in how we arrange and lay out a given show. All artwork brought in for a show should stay in that show until the show’s end date, so as to not leave holes or gaps in the show. If an item is purchased, it will be marked as “SOLD”. The item will remain in the show until the show’s end date.

* The BVAA does not provide insurance on artworks. Each artist is responsible for insuring their artwork. The BVAA is not responsible for reimbursement due to theft, breakage, accidents, vandalism, fire, water, natural disasters, or other acts of God.

BVAA Art Show Submission Form

Prize Categories at BVAA Shows
Depending on the show, we may organize prizes into categories. We may also have a show which is specifically for one type of medium, such as photography. Here are some guidelines as to how we typically handle these decisions. Feel free to contact us for more information about your specific artwork, as we understand that artwork can often cross into multiple categories.

PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography is an image created by light interacting with a surface. Nowadays most photography we see is digital camera / scanner photography which is then printed with an inkjet printer on some sort of paper, metal, or canvas substrate. Photography includes film photography in a variety of formats including 35mm and 120 medium format. Photography also includes cyanotypes which are made by creating shadows on a surface painted with light-reactive chemicals. Note that if any additional media is added to the finished printout, such as painting it with watercolors or acrylics, the work now becomes a mixed media work. The BVAA holds a photography-only show every January. We also hold the converse, an anything-but-photography show in the fall, which would include everything below.

PAINTING
The four main kinds of paintings we see are oil paintings, acrylic paintings, watercolor paintings, and pastel paintings. Depending on the show and the number of entries we might break prizes down into a separate prize for paintings. If a show is painting-heavy we might go further and for example make one category for oils and acrylics and another for watercolors and pastels. Paintings can be framed or wrapped-edge. We would always want the original of a painting in a show – we would not want a submission to be an inkjet copy of a painting.

DRAWING
The perhaps fairly arbitrary definition of a drawing is where a fair amount of the surface paper / canvas is still shown. So, for example, a pen-and-ink drawing of a cat on white paper is a drawing. So is a colored pencil drawing of an owl. A pastel would fall into the drawing category if the pastels were used to create an object – let’s say a vase – against the white of the paper. If, instead, the pastels are used in a more “painterly” way to fill the canvas from edge to edge, that moves it into the painting category.

MIXED MEDIA
This category is named for the multitude of media which are included in it; a given item in here is not necessarily a mix of media. In essence, this category would be anything which does not neatly fall within the photography, painting, or drawing categories. It can include fiber arts, art quilts, sculptures, monotypes with ink accents, collages, linotypes, pottery, computer generated or computer manipulated art, stained glass, and more. If you do not see your art genre covered, feel free to contact us – we’re always interested in expanding our horizons.

Please ask with any questions!

BVAA Art Show Submission Form

8 thoughts to “BVAA Show Terms and Conditions”

  1. Can I submit an unframed painting in to one of your shows as long as it is wired correctly?
    Thanks.
    Irena

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