• Residents of School District 64 (Gulf Islands) and Indigenous artists living in the southern Vancouver Island region whose traditional territories include the Southern Gulf Islands are eligible to participate.
• New artists may be invited to join after undergoing the jury process. Please see the information on jurying criteria below.
• Participants are required to be current Salt Spring Arts members.
• All items must be of high technical quality.
• Participants must only enter items whose production involves their creative process and that show originality.
• Items entered must be for sale and priced the same wherever sold.

Rates are kept low with volunteer time. We expect all members living on Salt Spring Island to complete one volunteer shift (three-hour equivalent) during the summer.

• Fine art and craft commission rate:
  With volunteer time 40%; without volunteer time 50%
• Books, calendars and music commission rate:
  With volunteer time 30%;  without volunteer time 40%

Artcraft employs a jury system to maintain its reputation for high quality, original and creative locally made arts and crafts. To ensure freshness and maintain high quality from regular exhibitors, one or more categories will be subject to jury each year, based on a five-year rotation. New artists must submit their work to the jury regardless of the category being reviewed that year.

Who will get juried for Artcraft 2026?

• Artists who are new to Artcraft, and/or did not participate in summer 2025
• Artists who participated in Artcraft Winter but have not yet been accepted by an Artcraft jury
• All textiles, clothing and fibre art, both for new artists and those previously accepted to Artcraft
• Artcraft artists who have new work that is substantially different to the work they were last juried for

Jurying is done at Mahon Hall with physical samples of the work to be considered. The jury consists of a minimum of three independent jurors who are professionals and/or teachers working in their medium, each of whom is accomplished in their field, and up to two members of the Artcraft Committee for a maximum of five jurors in total. At least one Indigenous juror will participate whenever possible. The Salt Spring Arts Council Board, their employees and/or contractors do not function as jurors.

Jurors evaluate entries based on the following criteria:

• Aesthetic merit
• Technical proficiency
• Originality
• Presentation/Marketability/Artist and Process statement

Artists who are accepted by the jury will be invited to register for the show if space allows. They will not be required to go through the jury again until their category of work is being rejuried according to the five-year rotation schedule, unless they are presenting work in a new medium or nature.

Accepted artists may take a one-season hiatus without going through the jury process again, unless they have changed mediums or their work has otherwise significantly changed.

• Samples of art and craft submitted for jurying must represent the entire range of work the applicant is planning to show at Artcraft.
• Samples submitted for jurying must include retail price.
• Jurying is done by reviewing physical samples. Photos of work can be considered in place of physical samples only for applicants living on the outer Gulf Islands and Indigenous artists living in the southern Vancouver Island region. Photos must meet criteria outlined by the Artcraft Manager, and must truly represent the types and quality of work that would be in the show.
• Work must have been produced within the last two years.
• All prospective participants must submit a description of their design and fabrication process detailing the place of origin of their materials, tools used and number of people involved in production. Incomplete information will result in refusal to jury.
• Artcraft reserves the right to document the pieces being juried to ensure that the work displayed during the season is of comparable quality.

Appeals of jury decisions must be made in writing to the Artcraft Committee and should be sent to the Artcraft Manager (artcraft@ssartscouncil.com) no later than one week after the decision. The Committee will review appeals and shall retain the authority to uphold or set aside jury recommendations.

• All work shown in Artcraft must be substantially designed and produced within School District 64 (Gulf Islands) by people living in the SD64 area. Items such as books and CDs must be written or recorded by people living in the SD64 area. Indigenous artists living in the southern Vancouver Island region are exempt from the residency requirement.
• Any individual artwork can only be entered for a period of two years.
• All entries must be the work of the registrant or done under their direction by an apprentice, an assistant or their studio employees.
• Preference will be given to products with the highest content of local materials and/or labour.
• All work must be original. Reproductions of original work are acceptable providing the reproduction is of high quality and labeled clearly.
• Art prints must be limited, signed and numbered editions and have high aesthetic merit.
• Wall art must be framed and ready to hang, or packaged and mounted professionally. Unframed prints must have protective backing and packaging.
• All items must be complete; i.e if you sell pendants, you must include a chain.
• Work that employs little more than assemblage from purchased components will not be considered.
• Work created using commercial molds or kits will not be considered.
• Some restrictions apply to food items; consult with Manager before registration.
• Work lacking minimum standards of design, artistic content and/or retail sale readiness will not be considered.
• Items copied or appropriated from other artists or cultures will not be considered.
• Participants agree not to remove submitted work during the Artcraft season.
• All work on display is to be sold through Artcraft; artists may not not arrange private sales of works during that period.
• Guidelines and policies may be subject to change.
• Decisions around participants' adherence to policies are made at the discretion of the Manager and/or the Artcraft Committee.