The Rewards of Being a Scribe
My experience with SAWS Fine Works In Wood 2023, Standards Committee and Jury.
I was at SAWS Member Matt Smith’s Open Shop last November chatting with Lifetime Member Herm Stolte about SAWS’ upcoming 2023 Fine Works in Wood Exhibition and Sale (https://www.saws.ca/2023). Herm is the Standards Committee Chairman and “happened” to mention the role of Scribe. The Scribe, Herm explained, records comments made by Standards Committee and Jury members as they conduct a detailed inspection and evaluation of the entries to the Exhibition. Having a Scribe allows Evaluators to freely scrutinize and comment on entries without having to make detailed notes of their own. That describes the role in a nutshell; it doesn’t describe the experience.
Herm did not need to ask twice - I jumped at the opportunity to be Scribe. I wanted to help with the Exhibition, and I thought it would be a chance to watch, listen, and learn as four fine Craftsmen and three experienced Designers evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Fine Works in Wood submitted to the Exhibition. I was right about that. I also got to see how truly careful, thoughtful, and helpful the judges were.
What seemed back in November to be only a distant possibility, the SAWS 2023 Fine Works in Wood Exhibition and Sale, got “REAL” for all involved on Saturday June 17, 2023, as 65 pieces from 28 Makers came rolling through the doors at DeltaTee Enterprises for Standards and Jury evaluation. The weekend was split between evaluations by Standards Committee on Saturday followed by Jurors evaluations on Sunday. It wasn’t long after the first pieces started arriving on Saturday that Standards Committee Chairman Herm Stolte got things going, along with Committee members Bill Maniotakis, Dave Ross and Fred Coates.
As Scribe, I was given a catalogue of entries prepared by Darrell Aunger and Graydon O’Blenes. Each page of the catalogue contained abundant information on individual entries including Acknowledgement, Technical Statement and Artist Statement. The large empty space on each page for notes was daunting initially! Makers are not listed in the catalogue and are identified by the piece’s entry number after evaluations and jurying are complete, thus preserving the Evaluators’ impartiality.
My first task with each piece was to read the Acknowledgement and Technical Statement to the Standards Committee. Once this was done, the Standards Committee got down to business. The first thing I noted was how diligently and methodically the Standards Committee approached every piece, with much thought given to all aspects of construction and finish. The comments come fast and furious and there was much discussion, so a big part of my job was to summarize to the Committee what I had written down about a piece before moving on to the next one.
Once satisfied that the piece had been fully evaluated and the notes and summary were in order, then it was time to assign the piece into one of three categories: Accepted, Conditionally Accepted, or Rejected. Then, on to the next piece until all were fully evaluated.
Taking notes for the Standards Committee was a great experience for me. They were easy to work with and listening to them rounded out my general woodworker’s knowledge. I took away suggestions to improve my own future works.
The next day, Sunday, was Jury day. The 2023 Jury: Visual Artist Corinne Cowell, Jewelry Designer Bayot Heer, and Architect James Clark, were given their marching orders by Jury Marshall and SAWS President Ed Marchand. The Jury was tasked with judging each Work on originality of design, choice of materials, artistic merit, professionalism of presentation and craftsmanship. Based on this, the Jurors would go on to determine which pieces merited Awards in each category. All this needed to be done before Four PM when makers were expected to begin arriving to pick up their entries. The day flew by.
Once again, I was given a catalogue with a page for each piece and a large empty space for notes. This time I read the Artist Statement to the Jurors before they started the evaluation. My advice to future entrants: do not underestimate the value of a good Artist Statement. The Jurors listened intently as I read the Statements and considered how the work related to the artist’s intention.
The first thing I noted was how Jurors looked at each piece from multiple perspectives. Jurors first determine how to “interact” with the piece. Some of the pieces were simply pleasing to look at because of the “interplay between light and shadow” or “positive and negative spaces” or “subtle visual texture” (a few typical comments). With other pieces, Jurors wasted no time in walking right up and opening doors and drawers, or sitting on or in the pieces, because they found the pieces “inviting to explore”.
Much of my time with the Jurors involved recording streams of adjectives and comments, followed by getting an agreed upon summary. Thankfully the Jury worked extremely well together and that made my job easy. I was able to read back my copious recorded notes and they never failed to boil them down into bite sized design terms. I ended up recording over 40 of these design terms which will be the subject of an upcoming Blog post with photos of actual entries as examples (September).
By the end of the day Sunday, the Jurors had agreed on Award winners in each of the Categories. The notes I took refreshed their memories, which helped with the final decisions on Awards.
Then, Makers arrived to pick up their pieces. Makers with Accepted pieces were told that the piece had been accepted. However, those with Conditionally Accepted pieces needed to be informed of items for remediation before their piece could be accepted into the Exhibition. This is where the recorded notes became important. Makers of rejected pieces were apprised of specific details on the rejection as well as highlighting positive aspects of their work to build on, again based on the Scribe’s notes.
Acting as Scribe is an experience I am personally very grateful for. I was able to add to my Woodworking Knowledge and learned about a whole new way of looking at Fine Works in Wood from the Jurors/Designers. I hope sharing my experience gives all exhibitors and potential future entrants the understanding that this is a real chance not just show off their work, but to gain feedback that moves their art forward.
Thanks to Herm and the Committee for this chance to play a small part in SAWS’ 2023 Fine Works in wood Exhibition and Sale. I know you will enjoy the wonderful exhibits as much as I did.