It was a stressful eight weeks as we watched the inaugural Artisans Cup submission process play out. It was not for the faint of heart, but in the end I’m proud to say we had over 300 submissions! Thank you all for your commitment to this show and for being willing to put yourselves out there and share your wonderful trees with the world.
From June 18th-20th, Michael Hagedorn and myself hunkered down to go through each submission. For those who are curious, here is some insight into how the jury review process was conducted. All names and identifying information associated with the trees was omitted from the submissions the Jury reviewed. This was to remove bias from the process and give every submission an equal footing. Trees that were accepted for the inaugural Artisans Cup were reviewed based on the following considerations:
Craftsmanship
Artistry
Design execution
Quality as material
Quality as a bonsai
Maturity and development
Marriage of tree with its container (or lack thereof)
Species and diversity within the show
Representation of the highest level of bonsai currently being practiced in the U.S. today
We referred to the Artist’s Statement to understand each artist’s intent for the piece they submitted. As a member or the jury, I was very interested to know what each person intended to express through their creation and their reasons for valuing the tree they submitted. Interestingly, the Artist's Statement for a few trees really swayed us in deciding to accept them, as it gave us insight into the historical significance of the tree, and the artistic vision. Very moving!
We will notify tree owners on June 30th through a personalized email whether their trees were accepted to display this year. Then, we will announce the accepted trees publicly on July 1st. The first week in July, the revamped Artisans Cup website will launch and will list all tree exhibitors, as well as our vendors list and a slew of exciting info and content regarding the show. Transportation opportunities and arrangements for accepted trees will be announced in the coming weeks so all exhibitors wishing to transport their trees to Portland via the Artisans Cup trucks can make reservations and transportation plans.
Stay tuned for more updates! Thanks again to all who submitted.
Sincerely,
Ryan Neil
