In 2010, Preston Singletary (at left) was awarded Best in Show and $10,000 by Museum of Glass board chair Randall Lert (at right), while museum executive director Timothy Close looks on. Singletary turned around and donated his award back to the museum.
The Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, raised over $650,000 in 2010 with their annual Red Hot Party and Auction fundraiser to support the institution’s exhibitions, educational offerings, hotshop, and permanent collection. In a twist from the tried-and-true practices of typical glass auctions that split the proceeds of artwork with the artists, the money raised from the sale of donated artwork went entirely to the museum. The artists weren’t stiffed, but made to compete with one another for prize money. The three artists donating the strongest works, in the opinion of a three-person jury [that included the editor of the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet] and by a vote of those in attendance, were awarded cash prizes as well as a week-long visiting artist residency in the museum’s hotshop. Preston Singletary took top honors and $10,000 last year, though he turned around and donated his winnings back to the museum.
For 2011, the museum’s annual fundraiser will take place on Saturday, July 30th, and the museum’s unconventional but successful formula will be repeated this year. This week, the Museum of Glass has once again issued a call to artists for work that will be considered by a new three-person jury who will be made up this year of New York’s Heller Gallery owner Douglas Heller, artist Richard Marquis and Chrysler Museum of Art curator Kelly Conway. According to a release from Museum of Glass, artists can expect jurors to evaluate work submitted based on “the artist’s use of glass as an artistic medium, originality, creativity, innovation, narrative expression, and general aesthetic sensibility.”. Those who have pieces selected for the auction are eligible for one of three cash prizes and a five-day residency in the museum’s hot shop.
This week, the museum begins accepting entries for the 2011 Red Hot Party and Auction fundraiser, and the deadline to submit is March 24th. Work submitted for review must weigh no more than 75 pounds, and have been produced after January 2007. It also must be made of at least 50-percent glass. Each entry must also carry a market value that falls between one of three ranges: from $300 to $1,000, $1,001 to $5,000, and $5,001 and up.
All artists who have work chosen will be eligible to receive one of the three cash prizes: $10,000 Artists Grand Prize, $5,000 Artists’ Choice Award, $5,000 People’s Choice Artist Award. Two of the prizes, the Artists’ Choice Award and the People’s Choice Artist Award, will be open to the public for voting begining early this summer, with the winners revealed the night of the fundraiser. In addition to the three cash prizes, each winning artist will be offered a five-day residency at the Museum’s hot shop.
For more information about the Tacoma Museum of Glass annual Red Hot Party and Auction fundraiser, and how to submit work, visit http://museumofglass.org/programs-and-events/red-hot/. Artists should check out an informational Website set up by the Museum of Glass about how to submit work for consideration. Though free, the application process requires registration with Juried Art Services, a third-party helping to administer the competition.
—Alica Forneret