The Craft Factor - SCC Adopts Sale Standards

TCF Vol 3 No 2, May 1978 and TCF Vol 3 No 3, August 1978

This week we take a look back at the birth of the Saskatchewan Craft Council jury standards. The standards and criteria where introduced primarily as a way to ensure the quality and originality of work offered for sale at all SCC organized craft sales. That remains the case today: Juried status (aka Marketing status) with the SCC is for the purpose of selling work at SCC sales, namely: WaterFront, Saskatchewan Handcraft Festival and WinterGreen.

Excerpt from "SCC Adopts Sale Standards"
Vol 3 No 2, May 1978

Of course, the jurying process for the SCC markets is often confused with the jurying process for exhibitions at Affinity Gallery, and special events like Dimensions. While the curators, selection committee and jurors are all provided with the criteria as a reference, they are not required to give those criteria the same weight as the jurors who approve work for markets. This is in order to not limit the exhibiting artist's ability to express themselves through experimentation in their work or chosen medium(s). That being said, those applying for exhibition, Dimensions or other juried exhibits are expected to demonstrate a strong understanding of the materials they work with.

Excerpt from "SCC General Meeting Sets Craft Standards"
Vol 3 No 3, August 1978

It is important to note that the standards were introduced by the members, built by the members and are enforced by the members. Though not always popular, the jury process and criteria have remained. The criteria documents and jurying process has changed and evolved since 1978 - major changes or revisions are conducted by a member-driven Standards and Jury Committee, and interim changes and updates to the criteria are handled by SCC staff and member volunteers.

For example, Visual Art criteria (painting, drawing and similar 2D work) was introduced in 2007. Seed Beading criteria was recently approved by the SCC board of directors in early 2013. The SCC now has written criteria in 20 different mediums (and dozens of sub-categories) and is open to adding new criteria as new mediums and processes arise. Do you know craft artists working in new and exciting media? Can you suggest new categories for criteria?

Read the entire Craft Factor article ...

To review the SCC Jury Process and Media Specific Criteria visit the SCC Website