Festival Description
Welcome to the 15th annual Saint Louis Art Fair, a nationally juried fine art and fine craft show. The Saint Louis Art Fair is held in the streets of Clayton, Missouri, one of the nation’s most affluent and prestigious business and residential communities. The Art Fair is consistently ranked one of the nation’s top fine art fairs. Each year the Saint Louis Art Fair attracts over 150,000 art enthusiasts who purchase more than $2 million worth of art at the festival.

Cultural Festivals, producers of the Saint Louis Art Fair invites you to apply to be an exhibitor at the 15 th annual Saint Louis Art Fair. The Art Fair will be held September 5, 6 & 7, 2008 in the central business district of Clayton, Missouri.

In addition to the amazing visual art exhibition, the festival will feature live performing arts ensembles on three stages, artist demonstrations, the Creative Castle featuring educational art projects for children, the Art Studio with hands on projects for adults and twenty of St. Louis’ most delectable restaurants.

Festival Dates and Times
Friday, September 5 5:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 6 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Sunday, September 7 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Important Dates
Deadline for submission of all applications, images and fees ........... January 31, 2008
Acceptance notification emailed................................................................. March 14, 2008
Accepted artists posted on www.saintlouisartfair.com ......................... March 14, 2008
All other notifications emailed..................................................................... March 14, 2008
Accepted Artist Participation Deadline....................................................... April 16, 2008
(Registration packets must be completed and received by this date along with booth fee.
If not received by deadline, artist will be replaced by reserve artist.)
Last day to cancel with refund...................................................................... July 10, 2008
Artist Awards Ceremony and Brunch ......................................................... 8:30 a.m., Sunday, September 7, 2008

Entry Rules and Instructions
Please follow all instructions carefully. Incomplete applications or those submitted without a jury fee check will not be considered. Applications post after 12:00 midnight Central Standard Time January 31, 2008 will not be considered. Each exhibiting artist and each member of a collaborative team must personally check-in at registration and must be in attendance in their booth during all published hours of the festival, with reasonable rest breaks. There can be no more than three people as part of a collaborative team. All collaborative team members must be alive at the time of the application process and at the time of the Saint Louis Art Fair. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE ANY APPLICATION.

Submission of Images, Fees and Application Forms
All artists must submit a total of five (5) electronic images for jurying (4 images representative of the artist’s work to be exhibited; 1 of the artist’s booth display). Each application must be accompanied by one non-refundable application fee for $35 payable to Cultural Festivals. Payment must indicate artist’s name, not studio or corporate name (the name may be hand written on a check). Returned checks are subject to a $50 handling fee. Artists must also include an artist statement describing the technique, materials used and any other creative expression of their work. The images are the basis used by the jury in selecting exhibitors for participation in the show. The artist statement will be used to clarify juror questions.

A maximum of 165 artists may participate in the show. Each of the 26 cash prize winners from 2007 have been invited to return in 2008 and are exempt from the jurying process. A reserve list of additional artists will be established within each media category to ensure a complete show. All decisions are final.

Our primary concern is the creative vision of the applicant and the quality of the work. Work must be original in concept and made under his/her direct supervision. Commercial studios involved in multiple or volume production will not be considered for the show. Artist’s statements clarifying production methods are required. All work exhibited and sold must be “original works of art.” “Original work” means no copies, reproductions or facsimiles of any type. No machine reproductions, photo mechanical reproductions or commercial reproductions (photo offset, letter press, photocopy, gravure or giclée) are permitted. No mass reproduction in combination with original, hand-crafted work is permitted. Copies from the works of masters, advertisements and widely circulated photographs are not considered original works of art and will not be permitted.

Artists may apply in multiple categories. Individual application forms, images and jury fees are required for each category. Each medium is evaluated separately. If you apply in more than one category, only the booth slide may be repeated. Artists may display work only in the media categories in which they are accepted. All work exhibited must be comparable to work shown in submitted images. Any work exhibited at the show which is inconsistent with the juried subject will be removed by the Executive Director. Artists accepted to the show must exhibit two-dimensional work (e.g., photography, painting, watercolors, graphics, pastels, prints and drawings) as appropriately framed and glazed pieces. Unframed, matted works may be shown in a portfolio for customer browsing.

Upon acceptance, the artist will be required to pay a fee for a standard booth ($575) or corner booth ($675), a completed registration form, a City of Clayton temporary merchant permit and a copy of their driver’s license, which will be used to verify identity at registration as well as for use on vehicle parking pass. Accepted artists will also be required to display an artist statement in their booth. Images submitted for jurying by the accepted artists will remain the property of Cultural Festivals and may be used for publicity and affirmation purposes during and after the Saint Louis Art Fair.

Display Booths
Each artist is provided a 100 square foot (10' x 10') exhibition space along with a shared 4' perimeter at the rear of the booths. All work exhibited must be limited to this space. Artists also receive access to electrical service; no generators are permitted. Artists are responsible for providing all display booths, racks, tables, light fixtures and associated display equipment and supplies. 24-hour security is provided, however, Cultural Festivals is not responsible for any damage which may occur to work, equipment or other material due to rain, wind, fire, theft, etc. Please make sure you bring enough weights to secure your tent in the event of strong winds or storms. Only one booth is available per artist. The work of only one artist may be displayed in each assigned booth. A multi-person team producing a single product such as jewelry, ceramics or fiber may qualify as a single exhibitor.

Jurying and Judging
Jurying is conducted by a panel of experienced arts industry professionals and is based solely upon the quality of work as illustrated in submitted images. Images are viewed simultaneously, horizontally and grouped by media. This is a “blind” jury process which means jurors select the artist based solely on the images presented to them. The panel juries images and also returns to the show in September to judge for awards and $21,000 in cash prizes. The jury will select a balanced show; however, there are no quotas in individual media categories. The integrity of the jury panel review process is paramount to our credibility among artists and to our larger success in the community. The Cultural Festivals organization strongly supports the jury review process and decisions made by the panel and will not, as a normal course of business, circumvent or alter these selections. It must, however, reserve the right to make specific changes and to determine the final composition of the show. The Executive Director, acting on the Board of Directors’ behalf, has final authority to make such adjustments as deemed necessary. A reserve list of artists in each media category will also be selected to ensure a complete and balanced show. Reserve artists will be notified by telephone should a spot become available in their particular media category.

2008 Jurors
The 2008 Jurors will be posted in January

NOTE TO ALL ARTISTS: If you work with others and/or have anyone other than yourself involved in any phase of the design and/or production of your work, be sure to include a statement that fully describes both your specific involvement and the contribution of others to the design and/or production of the work.

Cultural Festivals, presenters and producers of the Saint Louis Art Fair, is a non-profit organization working to further the arts, art education and artists. All proceeds go to further these efforts.

Media Categories
2-DIMENSIONAL MIXED MEDIA - Includes collage and handmade paper.

3-DIMENSIONAL MIXED MEDIA - Includes non-sculptural work as determined by the artist.

CERAMICS - All original clay work is acceptable in this category (wheel-thrown, slab, etc.). No machine-made or mass produced work is permitted.

DIGITAL ART - Original work utilizing computer technology to craft or manipulate visual images. Work must be printed on archival quality
paper and be properly signed and numbered as a limited edition. Traditional photographs taken through a digital media should apply in
the photography category.

DRAWING/PASTELS - Pencil, charcoal, chalk and pastels.

FIBER - No machine tooling, machine-screened patterns or miscellaneous forms of mass production are permitted.

GLASS - No molds or miscellaneous forms of mass production are permitted.

JEWELRY - All jewelry whether the work is produced from metal, glass, clay, fiber, paper, plastic or other materials must be entered in this category. No commercial casts, molds or production studio work.

METALWORK - Non-sculptural and non-jewelry metal work.

PAINTING - OIL, ACRYLICS, AND WATERCOLOR - Oils, acrylics, alkyd, casein and egg tempera.

PHOTOGRAPHY - Prints or transparencies must be from original negatives that the artist has processed or directly supervised by a reliable quality service. Photographers are required to disclose both creative and printing processes.

PRINTMAKING - Works created for which the artist’s hand manipulated the plates, stones or screens and no original exists and which have been properly signed and numbered as a limited edition. Printmakers are required to disclose both their creative and printmaking process.

SCULPTURE - Three-dimensional original work done in any medium will be considered.

WOOD - Original hand-tooled, machine-worked, turned or carved work.