I have an idea I’m going to give you for free.
At least twice each year I’m reminded that there’s a website called ratemyprofessor.com where students who do not have a degree in education can go and anonymously rate me on a scale of 1-5 according to my teaching, my personality and even my level of “hotness”. (Are the chili peppers still a thing? I know they were a million years ago.)
If you regularly read my posts, you’ll know I’m not a fan of anonymous student ratings, especially when they are school-sanctioned and given weight in faculty reviews. It might surprise you, then, to find that I don’t mind the ratemyprofessor website. Of course, students can misuse such an online tool but the written comments usually let you know exactly how biased the ratings are. I would guess that if students still look at things like this online, they can get an idea of whether or not they should take a class from a certain professor based on other students’ experiences. My students don’t have much of a choice, they’re just kind of stuck with the guy who teaches Sculpture.
My mixed feelings about anonymous ratings will not prevent me from sharing my great idea with you. After all, the ability to hold conflicting ideas in one’s head at the same time is some sort of reflection on their capacity for complex thought, right?
I think artists need a similar resource. I would like for someone to start a web presence called ratemyartgallery.com. I’ve checked and the domain seems to be available as of this posting. I’m not suggesting that artists would be more reliable or mature than students, but I believe such a platform of helpful information about galleries and museums would be beneficial to exhibiting artists.
Artists are dependent on the current exhibition system that is in place. In order to stay relevant, have their work in front of people and in my case, meet academic research expectations annually, artists need to exhibit their work. Much of this work is created over years and months with excruciating detail and care. Some artists feel as if their creations are as sacred as children. Most artists invest a significant amount of money in materials and time to create a single work of art. Many artists spend just as much time, effort and money in preparing, packaging and delivering these works of art to exhibition spaces. There, the artists leave their sacred contributions to this world in the hands of strangers and, too often, unpaid interns for safekeeping.
I have gone to pick up work from an exhibition space and found my work half-hazardly stashed in a storage closet, unwrapped, leaning against other artwork. I’ve left work carefully bubble wrapped and labeled only to pick it up with no trace of bubble wrap or packing materials. I’ve had work shipped back to me with badly chipped paint in several different areas of the sculpture and no trace of damage to the box and no evidence of paint chips inside the box or packing materials. This work was clearly dropped on a concrete gallery floor and quietly packed and shipped back to me without a word.
On the other side of that coin, early in my career, I shipped several drawings to Chicago behind glass and several of the pieces of glass were broken in transit (and that’s why we don’t use UPS). When the gallery guy saw it, he informed me and then meticulously removed the glass and replaced it with Plexiglas free of charge. I’ve also had viewers knock sculptures off pedestals, chipping the paint and the gallery director has apologized like they ran over my dog and offered to file an insurance claim.
I’ve dealt with curators and gallerists who didn’t show up to the gallery when I drove several hours to meet them. I’ve dealt with many who were late. I even had one who had no idea where my art was when I came to pick it up. It was later found - you can’t make this stuff up - in a kitchen under a shelf with pots and pans. I’ve joked that when I’m old and don’t care anymore, I will write a blistering tell-all about the art world, naming names and pointing fingers. I’m pretty sure it’s just a joke.
I’ve also dealt with curators and gallerists who came in on their personal time to let me in the gallery. Some came in early and late while I worked on murals. They took me to dinner, offered snacks and coffee and even found me free places to stay while I was in town. These people who live a life of art have said some of the most insightful and encouraging things to me. Some of these people have become second family and I love them dearly.
Any artist could go on social media and brag about a positive encounter if they wanted. A few of their followers would see it and all would be well. But no artist can afford to go negative publicly. Dude, I could tell you some stories and name some names. Doing so would burn bridges and permanently close doors. And just to be clear, we’re not always talking about a person. Sometimes it’s just a place, a town or a campus that an artist might need a warning about. Some venues are just downright predatory. But again, you don’t want to be the artist who talks smack.
Enter www.ratemyartgallery.com. Your all-inclusive place for artists to share their experiences and ratings of exhibition venues with one another. This resource could be checked before an artist pays an entry fee for a juried show, before they drive 4 hours to deliver work to a locked gallery and before their fragile work becomes irreparably damaged. Artists could then make a more informed decision.
Sure, an artist with an axe to grind could go there and leave an untrue or inflated negative rating, but when 50 other artists left positive ratings, any artist curious about the gallery would have a lot of information for balance. Galleries and their workers would be held to a higher standard of conduct. They would document how work arrived and make sure it left the gallery in the exact same condition – and packaging. They would make sure that even a student intern knew the correct painters tape to use on bubble wrap so that it doesn’t tear the plastic and render the bubble wrap useless. Not that I’m a little obsessive about details like that.
I haven’t checked in a few years, but back in the day, a student could go to my rating on ratemyprofessor and see that they might enjoy my class but they were going to have to work hard. With a new crop of students appearing in my studio in two weeks, I think that’s good information for them to have. When those students head out into the art world all wet behind the ears and eager, I’d like for them to have access to similar information about galleries. Maybe you want to provide that? I’m a little busy.
