Why is there an entry fee for Sip: A Ceramic Cup Show?

One of the main goals of the Savannah Clay Community is to support ceramic artists. Sip: A Ceramic Cup Show was founded on the belief that participating artists should benefit from the exhibition as much as possible. With that in mind, it may seem contradictory that there is an entry fee. We would love to make entry free, but at this time, that is not financially possible.

The Savannah Clay Community is a club rather than a nonprofit organization, which means we are not eligible for many of the arts grants that might otherwise help support a show like Sip. Each year, we hire a juror who is also a working artist, and we compensate them for the significant time and expertise involved in curating the exhibition. Because we do not have our own physical space, we rent a gallery for the show, supporting local arts organizations in the process. We also do not have a regular paid staff, but we hire one person each year to help coordinate and manage the exhibition.
By keeping our organizational footprint small, we have been able to keep the entry fee relatively low over the years.

Your $25 entry fee helps cover:

• The juror’s time and expertise
• Gallery rental
• A modest salary for the exhibition coordinator during the two weeks of the show
• The small amount of supplies and printing needed for the exhibition

Once cups are selected for the exhibition, we work hard to sell them. Over the past several years, we have averaged sales of approximately 70% of the cups in the show.
Of each sale:

• 80% goes directly to the artist
• 10% is donated to the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, helping support fellow artists facing unexpected hardship
• 10% is retained by the Savannah Clay Community to cover the remaining costs of the exhibition that are not covered by entry fees, primarily helping us pay our exhibition coordinator a fair wage

Our goal is to be as transparent as possible about how the exhibition is funded. Every decision we make about Sip is guided by our commitment to supporting ceramic artists and creating an exhibition that benefits the broader clay community.