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Juror Code of Ethics

To maintain the ethical standards of our award selection processes, we require that all jurors agree to comply with best practices for confidentiality, juror ethics, and conflicts of interest. The following policies are excerpted from the Joan Mitchell Fellowship’s Juror Agreements (2024).

CONFIDENTIALITY & CONDUCT

In order to function credibly, the Joan Mitchell Fellowship must maintain the trust of the community. It is essential that Jurors maintain high standards of integrity and impartiality in their decision-making. We ask that all jurors agree to the following:

  1. Participation as a juror remains confidential until and unless the Foundation makes their participation public.
  2. Jurors may not use confidential information acquired in the course of their jury service for their own personal or professional benefit.
  3. No juror may use or attempt to use their position on the jury to secure unwarranted privileges for themselves or others, nor give the impression that they can be improperly influenced.
  4. Jurors will treat all applicants, staff, and one another with respect and professional courtesy.
  5. Jury meetings for application review are not open to the public. This protects the privacy of jurors and their discussion, and encourages the candid review of artists' support materials. Comments by jurors at these meetings are absolutely confidential. The Foundation does, however, take notes during the panel which may be shared (anonymously) with artists who request feedback.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The Joan Mitchell Foundation is committed to avoiding all conflicts of interest in its selection processes. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest within the jury process would destroy the credibility of the review and quickly undermine trust in our process.

As a general rule, if your aesthetic judgment of work under review will be unduly affected or give the appearance of being affected due to your personal involvement with an applicant, then you should disclose your relationship and abstain from voting on that applicant. The following are examples of such situations:

  • Family, partner, close friends, or arch enemies.
  • Anyone with whom you have a significant financial connection.
  • A current student, employee, or protégé.
  • Current employer, board member, departmental colleague or anyone with whom you have been professionally associated for a significant period of time.
  • An artist who you are currently (or will in the future be) curating a solo show of, or a similar professional relationship.
  • Any situation that would lead you to judge the artist rather than the artist's work.

After reviewing the list of applicants, jurors must provide Foundation staff with the name and application number of any applicants that pose a conflict of interest, or with whom the juror has a relationship that may give the appearance of a conflict of interest, along with a brief description of the relationship.