Art Prizes: Judgement Day

I’ve had the honour of being asked to judge many prizes in my role as an art critic. It’s a significant responsibility and I wanted to share my insights from the many different judging panels I’ve been on. and how they’ve worked.

I’m hoping this post will prove helpful for those judging prizes in the future and for the artists who apply to them. There’s no fixed way to judge an art prize and I’ve judged remotely and in person, individually and as a group.

Sifting through the entries

Artists often put in a lot of effort to impress the judges when applying for an art prize. And so they should, there’s nothing quite as off-putting as an unprofessional entry with blurry pictures and spelling mistakes. However, it’s worth noting many judges are unpaid and are often required to wade through hundreds of applicants.

Given the volume of entries most judges can truthfully spend a couple of seconds on each entry, 30 seconds maximum, when making an initial judgement. So it’s almost all decided on that lead image and concise explanation of what that image represents.

I’ve been on a few panels with artists and they find it very useful to see how little time is afforded to each entry. Thus helping them prepare for applying to future prizes themselves.

Judgement time

Most judging is done through JPEGs and video files of the artworks. Not all artworks translate well when they can’t be experienced in person and this can put some entrants at a disadvantage. The best counter to this predicament I’ve seen is a short video of the artist explaining what their work is and what it represents. A 60 second clip can make a world of difference.

I’ve had to use scoring scales of 1-3, 1-5. 1-7 and 1-10. It’s extremely tricky to score a subjective view of an artwork using a numerical scale and then I’ve often found myself going back to the beginning to ensure I’ve been consistent. Though human psychology means if I’ve had a run of low scoring artworks then the next ‘good’ one to come along is likely to be scored higher than if it were nestled within other high scoring entries.

Judging in isolation

There are some benefits to every judge scoring in isolation and the highest overall score winning the prize. It’s egalitarian in that every opinion carries equal weight and if the names are scrubbed from the applications then that’s even fairer still. Though if I know an artist I’m likely to recognise their work even if the name has been scrubbed.

Fellow judges can also have valuable insight into a work I may miss as I’m rapidly flicking through entries. Totalling scores also risks the least offensive work winning overall even if nobody had picked it for their winner, which never seems like a good result to me.

Judging as a group

Whether doing it remotely or in person I far prefer judging as a collective as we all make mistakes and if I’ve missed something about an artist it’s good to have a fellow judge on hand to point it out. I know I’ve done the same when I’ve recognised an artist and flagged to my fellow judges what their work is all about.

Judging as a group allows us to get to a shortlist which we can debate in detail, perhaps picking up nuances in the remaining entries that may have been missed. It also allows us to advocate for individual entries.

Now this does come with the pitfall that one particularly persuasive or bullish panel member can sway the entire panel with their confidence or bluster. I have seen this happen a fair few times and unfortunately it’s always been older white men who have been culpable. As we all know that’s the demographic that’s on average more confident in their beliefs and that can result in winners that the panel isn’t in full agreement on.

Conclusions

While there are difficult moments in being a judge, I really enjoy it and will happily continue to act as a judge on future prizes. I’ll keep adding to this blog post as I gain new experiences from future judging panels.