The wait is over! The participants for Indie Craft Parade have been chosen! This past Saturday our jury reviewed nearly 350 applications for Indie Craft Parade. After many hours of careful discussion, they finalized the list of vendors accepted to represent their work this September. Our jury is a group of 5 professional artists with expertise in many genres, and we're very happy to hand over this difficult task to them. They juried each category separately and judged individual applications on how well they matched the vision of Indie Craft Parade, as well as their originality, quality, uniqueness, and innovation. All applications were reviewed anonymously to avoid any bias. Each jury member viewed an applicant's description of their work, along with the 4 photos they submitted. They briefly discussed the merits of the application, and then voted whether or not it should be accepted. The jurying is a tedious process, but this thoroughness is essential for selecting just the right mix of exhibitors.
So what happens next? Today we're sending out email notifications to all of our applicants. If you haven't received yours yet, please be patient. We're writing individual emails, not a mass mailing, so it takes several hours. When applicable, we're including comments from the jury as to why a work was not accepted or how to refine work that was. The official list of accepted exhibitors will be posted on our website once they've all confirmed their reservations.
To be honest, this day is the hardest for us at Indie Craft Parade. We hate writing rejection letters! But we only have room for 70-80 vendors, and with nearly 350 applicants, there simply is not room for everyone. Many of our applicants showed great skill in their work, but they were not the best fit for our festival or we just had too many similar entries in some categories. Indie Craft Parade represents all the genres of art and craft--so we can't limit ourselves to showing just fine art or just jewelry, etc. So please, if you were not accepted for this year's event, don't let that discourage you from entering again. Keep working to make your goods better and more original, and we'd love to see your entry next year!
One other change to expect this year: Most of our applicants requested full-sized booths. Unfortunately, we can't accommodate that many full booths without significantly reducing the number of exhibitors represented. So, several applicants were asked to downsize their booths in an effort to fit all of the accepted artists--something we didn't have to do last year.
Thank you again to everyone who applied! Your work is vital to the Greenville and greater Southeast art community, and we're so grateful that you chose to share it with us.
