The Trail to the SAWS 2025 Exhibition
This is going to be a good one.
The 2025 Southern Alberta Woodworker Society (SAWS) Fine Works in Wood Exhibition, Sept. 5 to 14 has north of 55 final entries. A wide variety of creativity in size and approach, all interesting, and as always, some provocative, stunning pieces.
Entries come from various areas including a number from outside Calgary, a testament to the reputation the SAWS Exhibition has built.
The Exhibition is an extraordinary accomplishment for a group the size of SAWS. It consistently attracts strong interest in the Alberta and Western Canadian woodworking and artistic communities. Real prestige.
Many people come together to get this event organized. It is a sophisticated and substantial effort. So, for those who are interested, here’s a quick recap of the Exhibition trail so far.
Our goal and approach
The goal of Exhibition organizers is an effective process that makes each SAWS Exhibition as simple and successful as possible. That commitment to continual improvement encourages participation at all levels from SAWS organizers, to member volunteers, to exhibitors and sponsors. And it makes future Exhibitions more manageable.
Committee framework. The Exhibition Committee group of eight people has been meeting monthly since early in 2024, shaping all activities around the Exhibition. It’s a streamlined, slightly smaller group this time around but as usual, is backed by many SAWS members who have helped in the past and unselfishly step up to assist wherever needed.
Exhibition document revamp, refresh. The Exhibition documents online have been streamlined into a simple, effective process. That substantial background work makes the 2025 Exhibition very accessible and future ones so much easier to manage. That work includes a new entry system this year that received good reviews from many exhibitors.
Entry intake days. This two-day event is where the rubber meets the road for the Exhibition. It is the day where all entries are delivered for review and photography.
The process this year was upgraded. The entry drop-off time was staggered so it was more manageable for exhibitors delivering and picking up their work, and for SAWS volunteers receiving and processing them.
Each entry is labeled in a way that tracks the owner but keeps that information private from all others. And that entry is linked with a book of information that provides important details such as the artist statement and other specifics from the entry form.
Next step is for the Standards Committee to review each piece for technical competency. That team of accomplished woodworkers review each one thoroughly and describe the reasons for their decisions.
On Day 1, the Standards Committee assesses each entry’s quality of workmanship and outlines remediation if required. Day 2, a Jury of three qualified representatives assesses each entry from an artistic perspective and picks winners in each category.
As that process takes place, an Exhibition Scribe delivers that overview to the Standards team at the start of each piece review, which streamlines the process for them. The Scribe then records key details of the Standards Committee decisions.
A SAWS member serves as Scribe to record comments of the Standards Committee and Jury on each piece.
Day Two of the intake is review by the Jury. Three highly experienced people from the woodworking and artistic community review each piece, offer their opinion from a creative perspective and pick winners in each category.
Again, the Scribe reads our background information and then captures key points. Those details are valued by exhibitors to understand the assessments of their entries.
End of Day Two, exhibitors return to pick up their entries.
The two-day exhibit intake and assessment process gets the 2025 SAWS Fine Works in Wood Exhibition off and running.
Framework preparation for the big week. With the exhibit entry details finalized, next steps to final preparation for the actual show take place.
A key part is ensuring the actual on-site display structure is ready to go. Committee member Tam Godfrey has a job like a NATO commander. He is bringing together a diverse team of people who will need to work in a seamless process to build the structural framework on-site for the Exhibition.
That starts with a dry run where plinths are painted, glass shelves assembled, electrical needs determined, and physical display needs for various pieces determined. That leads to a test run of the actual on-site design occurs.
This process also includes updating display details such as SAWS background, sponsor details and the information such as the materials to encourage membership.
Communications continues. While that crew is working on the physical setup details, another is working to contour and finalize communications. That includes building the Exhibition catalogue, a new on-line process developed for 2023 and further streamlined for 2025. It cuts time and production costs for this and future Exhibitions.
As well, others on the communications team are developing communications such as news releases, News Blog articles and carrying out media and industry liaison.
The launch
All of this work takes us to the official event launch.
It is a lot of work to set this up to look as incredible as it always does. So, SAWS is depending on members to help with set up the evening of Thursday Sept. 4 and takedown after the mall closes on Sunday, Sept. 14.
There should be a lot of pride in this Exhibition. It will be a good one if people participate.
