Having an Arts and Sciences Display or Competition at an event is not as straight forward as it may seem. Here are some things to consider when planning and executing. So what is the difference.
- Display – A display is just that, an opportunity to put arts out for public view at an event. It gets the artist’s name an work out for people to see and remember
- Popular Vote – This competition is very similar in goal to display, but it is ultimatly deciding the preferences of the group that is voting. Artists and Scientists should never consider this as the ultimate evaluation of worth, or what is the best quality entrant. It is just a view of what represents the voting group.
- Choice – This competition is to choose an Artist or Scientist, that represents the chooser’s asthetic and aclaim them as the champion. This is an opportunity for the local nobles, or royalty to pick what entry best represents them and their group. Examples of this are Baronial Champion, and Ansteorra Royal Artisan. An artist or scientist should never consider this as the ultimate evaluation of worth, or what is the best quality entrant as these are not chosen based on a ruberic but a preference.
- Jurried – Jurried competitions are chosen soley on a scored ruberic. The only competition we have in the kingdom that is completely jurried is Kingdom Arts and Sciences. This should be a level playing field where the research and product are held to a ruberic to rank projects. Some local competitions may use jurried methods to assist them in choosing a champion and providing feedback to artists, but that should not be an indicaiton of what scores will be given at Kingdom Arts and Sciences.
Best Practices
Consider Just a Display
If you are not needing to chose a champion, then a display is a better option for any event. In fact we want to encourage every event put out display tables. This allows artist that are not competively minded, or have competition anxiety to have a chance to show their work. Putting out paper for comments is also nice for artists to get feedback and complements.
When to Use a Popular Vote
If you just must have a competition but not chooseing a champion, consider popular vote, especially if you are having a themed or SCA life specific competition. Know that certain artists can be discouraged if they feel only “bright shiny” objects get attention. Stating the purpose of the venue is key to understanding.
Best Practices for a Choice
If you are chosing a championship this may be the best option. You can have your sitting nobles, all nobles on site, or all laurels on site. The group you want to make the choice is up to you. As the purpose is to pick a champion for your specific group, this should be the entry that is most meaningful to the group. This can be only decided, only commented, or scored.
If you are going to score, you need to require documentation. If only some entries have documentation and others don’t, they are automatically behind. Many artists become frustrated when documentation was not required, but if you don’t have it, you might as well stay home. It is always better to set a clear expecation. Another best practice is to have a display area in addition to your competiton.
There are new local judging forms that are modeled off of the kingdom sheets with more room for comments. If you are going to have scores for the competition, ask for judges in advance. Nothing is more frustrating for a laurel to have a day planned at an event, and to get pulled into judging all day instead. It is a laurel’s job, but consider this is their weekend too. Don’t forget your thistle artists and Irises can also judge.
With all judging sheets and even your laurel judges, review the sheets. People have bad days, and people get tired. If you feel the comments are out of line, take this to the person judging and ask them to tone it down. If they stand by it, have a laurel or your noble review the form. Ultimately if this is a serious issue or policy is broken, please send the form to kingdom@moas.ansteorra.org. We want to review these items for training purposes and coaching.