Gallery Buzz

By Chiyo Ueyama, Exhibitions Assistant

Although people say January and February are slow months, that is hardly the case at MAG. Wine & Spirit just opened with a terrific preview party, and while we move full speed ahead towards Fiberart International (opens May 1), hundreds of entries for the Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition will come in the next two months.

The Finger Lakes show goes back several decades in MAG history, and artists such as Albert Paley and Wendell Castle have their roots in this juried exhibition. Now offered every other year, it showcases works by artists who reside in the 27-county region in upstate and western New York. Here, I’d like to introduce some changes we have made to the 2011 exhibition.

“Prestigious” is one way the show has been described. It has always been competitive, and the trend in recent years has been toward smaller, tighter exhibitions. A growing number of artists and our audience have voiced their opinions, wanting to see more works by artists in our region. In order to accommodate the request, we increased the number of works each artist can submit to three (it had been two), and the jurors will select at least 100 entries for inclusion this year.

There is more. Around this time two years ago, I wrote on Gallery Buzz that MAG no longer accepted 35mm slides from Finger Lakes applicants. The switch was necessary as slide film production had become almost non-existent. This year I’m excited to announce another much anticipated move: Finger Lakes is going paperless. The entry fee is paid online, and digital images and entry form are submitted via e-mail, requiring no checks or trips to the post office.

I hope these changes are positive ones for all. Here’s to a great summer of regional art at MAG.

63rd Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition
July 24–September 25, 2011
Application deadline March 31
http://mag.rochester.edu/exhibitions/rochester-finger-lakes/