The ARC gallery in Chicago turned down my application in an email without actually telling me (see below PDFs Winners & my Submission). This was a surprised thinking their lack of acknowledgment unusual. The point of this rejection is to say that although I am disappointed in not even making the first cut on the ARC Gallery exhibition, I kinda saw this coming from checking multiple times my YouTube link to an audio file I listed in the application. What I found in my YouTube statistics is that there had been only one unique (me) visitor to this post. If you wish to double the views, be my guest supporter of this blog post.
Art show rejections for this art are common and expected. But for some unknown reason, I thought I might have a slight chance. I like the ARC Gallery which is run by women, who I came over time to feel are genuine about their support for the visual arts. Their exhibition entry application is very detailed and demands a lot of effort to complete. I completed this application several times. Each version required me to spend many hours writing, rewriting, and then rewriting over months’ updated answers to all their application questions. I believe their demands are the most I have ever come across in a submission. But every question that I answered, and re-answered, gave me a better understanding of the artist and what this art truly means. Difficult as their application is, it is well worth a look at. Therefore, I hold nothing but the feeling of another disappointment that falls in place in a very long line of rejections I have received over the years. So, it goes.
For the twenty-five bucks it cost me to apply, I come away with the positive I have given to a good gallery that just might someday change its mind and actually listen to my music. It’s completing that first step, being recognized, that is always the hardest.
Scott Von Holzen
aRT iN mUSIC 