Although some may argue with this statement, I believe I am a moderately organized person. I make lists, write appointments, events, etc on my house calendar, keep all my art slides safely in a binder, save receipts and on a irregular basis clean up my computer's desktop. However I found a major hole that I had overlooked in organizing for art shows and it finally came to fruition that not being better organized would result in a bite in the ass.
Whenever I find a show I wish to enter I mark the date (about 10 days before the deadline) of the show submission on my calendar. I then put the application, whether from a mailed announcement or one I've printed from the computer in a "special" spot on my dresser so when the time comes I can easily find the necessary paper work. A few days after a painting is finished I send it to be photographed with a local photography studio. Slides are kept in plastic slide sheets in a binder. Business and manilla envelopes (all recycled materials) are kept with paper clips with several fine point black sharpies that are just used to label slides.
The one important thing missing is that no where in my records do I list which pieces are being submitted to which show. I have, once before submitted the same piece to two shows both being held simultaneously and had to called, apologize and chose which show the twice juried piece was to go into. This weekend I hit a major snafu with one piece entered in in two simultaneous shows and another piece in three.
It is uncomfortable and embarrassing to have to call gallery and museum staff and admit my organizational error and make a decision where to show the piece. You can bet that before I enter another show I will have made sure that I will have set up a reasonable system for avoiding such a problem
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