George Bolge An interview with George Bolge, Director of Boca Raton Museum of Art, by Angela Di Bello

Please list several of the competitions that you have juried and describe some of the goals and challenges that you experienced.
As a director of a small museum, over the years, I have judged hundreds of art festivals and competitions all over the state of Florida, at a local level and national level as well.  I was the director at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, and judged the Hortt Memorial Exhibition and Competition, which is a nation-wide competition.  I’ve also judged the All Florida Competition, which is the oldest overall state competition.  Additionally, I’ve judged portfolios for artists preparing for graduate study in art.  So, over the years, I have spent a great deal of time doing this.  Whether they’re experience level is exhibition, competition, college or even younger artists, I think it’s always a good idea to remain fresh. You need to know what the artists are doing out there.  For a regional museum, this is very important.
As far as some of the goals and challenges, when you look at a competition, when I look at any competition, there are several questions you have to ask.  First, do you want a single judge or do you want multiple judges?  The advantage of a single judge – good, bad or indifferent – is that you have the backing of a singular opinion.  Multiple judges give you many opinions, but the reality of it is that you settle for something in the middle.  One judge will like this one, the other judge will like that one, and you’ll settle for a third.  As long as you have a finite number of things to go into an exhibition, and a finite number of prizes, multiples judges always involve negotiation.  Because of that, I prefer the single judge.

By Clara Lemaire

Pricing art is a daunting challenge for many artists.  The challenge seems even greater when pricing emerging artists’ artwork.  An emerging artist is starting as a “new artist” and does not have a strong history or reference point at which to price his work.  He can be a young, recent graduate student, or someone who has been working for an indefinite amount of time and has yet to sell his work.  In the early stages of his or her career, the artist has not yet established a solid reputation, and does not necessarily know who or where to ask for guidance.

Whether you are an emerging artist yourself, an art dealer, gallery owner, gallery director, client, museum curator, or an investor interested in emerging artists’ work, the complex question has arisen and will, inevitably, arise: “What is the monetary value of my art?”