Jurors

Helen Klisser During is an award-winning art advisor, curator, and photojournalist, and is Artistic Director Emeritus at Westport Arts Center. As a curator, she has presented a range of shows, exhibitions, symposia and lectures, including working with the Hall Art Foundation in curating exhibitions of international note. She is a member of the Connecticut Arts Council, has served as an Art Advisor to Art Dubai and the New York Armory, and juror, panelist, speaker and founding member of the Westport Artist Collective. During also founded the ArtCafe blog, which is a monthly review of the art world. As a professional photographer, her work has been published in The Art Market Report, Art New Zealand Magazine, artforum.com, Connecticut Cottages and Gardens, NYCgo.com, WestportNow.com, stuff.nz, and Richtopia. Photo assignments include still photography for the 2016 New Zealand Documentary "My Year with Helen;" overnight airlift(s) with AmeriCares to Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Guatemala; and a special United Nations assignment to Malawi and Rwanda with Helen Clark of the United Nations Development Programme.


Dr. Philip I. Eliasoph, currently Faculty Consultant in Arts & Visual Culture for The New York Times and Professor of Art History at Fairfield University, is a passionate public arts advocate. Eliasoph served by appointment of the Governor on the Commissioner for the State of Connecticut's Arts Division, and was the founding co-president of the Town of Fairfield Arts Council. His expertise is often called upon as a fine arts advisor, appraiser, and counselor for distribution of philanthropic assets to museums and non-profits. Eliasoph has made significant contributions to the field of American art with his research and publications on a number of over-shadowed 'Magic Realist' masters including Paul Cadmus, Robert Vickrey, and Colleen Browning. Eliasoph appreciates that many classroom students have a minimal, or passive understanding of art's wonderfully rich heritage -- he impresses everybody to learn the class motto, "ART REALLY MATTERS!"


Francine Kass is an Art Director at W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. in New York City. In this position she directs book jacket art for the Trade Hardcover list, which consists of both fiction and non-fiction books. As a lover of books and information Kass’s career has concentrated mostly in the book and magazine publishing industries. She feels book jackets are a wonderful design medium, as they incorporate type, fine art, illustration, and photography. In addition to working at Norton, Francine has worked at Alfred A. Knopf, Simon & Schuster, and Manhattan, inc. magazine. In her long career, Kass has worked on hundreds of titles including books authored by John Updike, A. S. Byatt, Elizabeth Strout, Andrea Barrett, and Eric Foner. As a freelancer, Kass has designed jackets for most of the major publishing houses in New York.


Joe Standart is an internationally-known photographer and director, whose successful campaigns for organizations have won him awards from the Andys, and The One Show. Beginning his career with the National Park Service in Alaska, Standart spent two years documenting the "last frontier," then transitioned to a studio in the heart of NYC where he teamed with corporate, interior and home, and travel clients. Standart's successful commercial career spanned nearly 30 years, and now his work explores the ways a photographer can connect with individuals and communities on a personal level. His national public art initiative, Portrait of America, began in 2004 in New London, Connecticut, by mounting an exhibition of monumental portraits of the city's residents throughout public spaces in the downtown area. Standart's work transformed the city into an outside gallery in which fine art was accessible to all. The portrait exhibitions hold a mirror up to a community to reveal what's already there—the inherent dignity and promise of its people. Joe Standart lives happily with his family in New York City and Lyme, Connecticut.