As I welcome you to our fourth newsletter, the 2003 Discerning Eye exhibition is now almost upon us. You will be able to find the exact dates of the exhibition on page two of this newsletter and we hope that as many of you as possible will be able to visit the exhibition which yet again promises to be an outstanding event.

How do I know this? Well I was fortunate enough to visit our 2003 selectors on both of the open submission selection days in September and in so doing, was able to see the quality of work being chosen for the exhibition.

Each year, the selectors who undertake the daunting task of viewing the two thousand or so open submission works don't really appreciate what they have taken on until they arrive at the Mall Galleries.

With no comment or reference to the artist, the works start arriving in the morning (four to six at a time) and continue all day with the selectors getting only a short break for a sandwich at lunchtime.

The fact that all the selectors give up their time willingly and for no recompense is admirable, but what is truly impressive is the level of unerring concentration and seriousness that each group of selectors dedicate to the works on offer. Most artists who submit works to the Discerning Eye will be unaware of the level of attention actually given to their submissions. Therefore I hope all artistes who have submitted this year will be pleased to hear that our selectors take their responsibilities so seriously that this year hundreds of works were viewed twice and many (where the selector wasn't sure) three times. Ultimately what they select goes directly into the exhibition.

Whilst this is not the only unique feature of the Discerning Eye, the fact that works from the open submission are not selected 'by committee' and that the individual selectors are different each year and are solely responsible for what they 'select' gives equal opportunity to artists year on year.

Tough choices at 2003 exhibition

To assist artists who want to submit the maximum number of works each year (and quite a few do) our membership scheme helps to reduce the cost of the maximum number of submissions by the price of one work. This scheme is working well, and the number of artists who have joined the scheme is growing year on year. However, there are still one or two artists who believe that membership should guarantee that their works are exhibited. Unfortunately this is not and cannot be the case. Not only is gallery space always going to be limited, this approach would go against the whole spirit of the Discerning Eye and the level playing field we aspire to recreate each year.

With the open submission numbers increasing each year and with a growing number of well known artists entering works via the open submission in the full knowledge that their works might not be selected, we strive to continue to be unique and hope that this remains attractive to the majority of artists.

 

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