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Here is an interesting thought to throw forth. Perhaps some of these committees don't know who to ask or where to find a judge. (Obviously, I am referring to the local shows. The national shows are a whole other story.)
I happen to share a studio with another artist in a public location. As a result, we've been asked to judge shows at the local schools, and recently we were contacted to judge the local art guild show. Various times the committee asking us have mentioned that they really appreciated us being willing to judge since they had trouble knowing who to ask. Sometimes they had asked people who turned them down.
When I used to be active in the local art guild, there were times that I had to help find a judge and believe me it was not easy. We always tried to find artists as our first choice, but that was not always possible. Most often there is only so much money to offer a judge. In addition, there is still a major limitation in that you have to find someone close enough that travel expense will not have to be factored in.
Next problem is how to find an artist. Quite often many of the local artists are IN the show so that eliminates them. Also most artists have their studios in their home, so unless you know about them, if they only advertise out of the local area then they are not known and that eliminates most of them. Then there are these "art experts" (ha, ha) that make themselves known to all and tell everyone that they are the best judges of art. So there you have it. The committee now "knows the best" and that is who they hire.
Perhaps we as artists need to let the local schools and guilds and other organizations that have shows know that we are willing to judge art shows and exhibits. We might be doing everyone a favor.
Of course, having said all of that, we need to be ready to be the person that will be blamed when someone is not happy with our choices.
Mary
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