Renewal

Late February/early March are months of rebirth and renewal in the life of the 33-year-old Over the Mountain Studio Tour. It’s really the start of our year because that is when we jury new members into the tour. It’s exciting for us and undoubtedly exciting (and scary) for those who apply.

I interviewed some of our jurors (including myself) to see what they look for as they as they add new talents? We are all are looking for that special combination of unique quality work and artistic design. That’s a given. We also want craftspeople desiring to work within a supportive community of makers. And we’re looking for people willing and able to lend their talents and skillsets to help the group thrive.

It’s our hope that our members be curious and exploring and growing. It is so inspiring to each of us to observe individual artistic growth no matter the media. This pandemic downtime has given many of us the opportunity to branch out and experiment with new materials and expressions.

We also try to think from our tour-goer's perspective. We want our two annual shows to be varied and innovative and showcase a myriad of media. We want to offer a variety of price points while holding our standards high.

Over the last few years we’ve developed a new tier of artist/participant and that is what we call an Emerging Artist. They may need mentoring. They may have limited inventory to sell. We make it easy and welcoming for them financially but still they must meet our high artistic standards. We welcome them to show with us for a year

.

Interested? By mid-February submit some photos of your work and a letter of introduction that includes why you would like to jury, a bit about where you are on your artistic journey and the skillsets you would bring to our community of makers. Email to dansgen@frontiernet.net.