Every other year, the Fitton Center for Creative Arts invites any artist living within 50 miles of Hamilton to submit work to the Greater Hamilton Art Exhibition.

This year wasn’t quite a record year, said Director of Exhibitions Cathy Mayhugh, but close, drawing 273 entries by 160 artists.

The galleries at the Fitton Center can hold roughly 100 works of art, Mayhugh said, which is quite a challenge for the jurors, who can only select about one in three works for the exhibition, and only three prize-winners for Best of Show and a Silver Prize for best two-dimensional and best three-dimensional works.

“A good juror is someone who has enough experience in the field to evaluate a range of media,” Mayhugh said.

This time around, it fell to Amy Kollar Anderson and Roscoe Wilson, both of whom have a solid relationship with the Fitton Center.

Anderson has not only exhibited at the Fitton Center but has six years experience as a coordinator for a community arts center, too, the Rosewood Arts Center in Dayton. Wilson, an associate professor of art for Miami University Hamilton, has been entering the Greater Hamilton Art Exhibition for over 10 years, has won awards and has been rejected. He also exhibits nationally and was recently part of the “Pulp Art” group show at the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington.

“I like to have some personal contact with the jurors,” Mayhugh said. Even though Wilson and Anderson had not previously met, “I knew they would be really open in their dialog. They both have strong opinions but they’re willing to have discussions and be sensitive to the artists and what they are trying to do.”

Which is no easy task. If only one-third of the submitting artists can exhibit, that means two-thirds of them will be, to put it bluntly, rejected.

It also means that the two jurors must spend nearly an entire day looking at art and evaluating each work. As artists themselves, they want to give the artists their due.

“It takes courage to put yourself out there in a competition,” Mayhugh said. “That’s the difficult part of a competition show, but if the artists are willing to learn and keep trying, it’s a valuable way for them to grow.”

“No one should be discouraged to the point that they quit making art because they didn’t get in,” Anderson said. “It’s all a part of the process.”

Before the jurors arrive, Mayhugh and her gallery crew arrange the work all over the Fitton Center’s second floor. Even the conference rooms, the closets and Mayhugh’s office were filled wall-to-wall with work arranged by category. In order to get a broad representation, Mayhugh and the jurors try to make sure that every type of media is included, so she lays out watercolors next to watercolors, photographs next to photographs, fiber arts next to fiber arts.

When Anderson and Wilson arrived at the Fitton Center Friday morning, they first took a quick pass to look at everything to get a sense of the scope and magnitude.

Then for the next four hours or so, they take a closer look at each piece while Mayhugh follows along taking notes, marking each item on the list as a yes, no or maybe.

“It’s nice to talk it out,” Wilson said. “That takes some of the pressure off because one of us will see something that the other doesn’t, and then we both can give it a second look.”

“At this point, we’re picking out the pieces we really like,” she said. “We get an overview of everything, but until you really examine them, you don’t know what to say about them.”

By the end of the first pass, they found they had about 40 yesses and a whole lot of maybes, so they revisit those to get the show roster up to an adequate number of pieces to have a good show and a good representation of work from area artists.

They also start nominating work for honorable mentions and the three main prizes.

When they were done, they settled on 77 works by 64 artists were selected. About 40 percent of artists who entered had work selected.

Between now and the exhibition opening on March 16, Mayhugh has the task of creating a presentation of the work selected, which will give the show its final character and shape.

Whether or not the Greater Hamilton Art Exhibition provides a snapshot of the state of the arts at the present time is a matter of debate.

“It gives a glimpse of what’s going on in the area,” Anderson said, “but you don’t really see the full scope. You don’t see a lot of experimental stuff, new media or installation work.”

And some groups, particularly the high-end professional artists living in the area who exhibit nationally and internationally, are under-represented.

“That being said, there’s a lot of scope here,” Anderson said. “I’ve been surprised by a lot of the work here.”

“An exhibition like this provides a good opportunity for artists just stepping into the arena,” Mayhugh said. “Maybe the next step for a lot of them is to apply for a solo show somewhere.”

It’s also a good exhibition for area artists to see what their colleagues and neighbors are up to.

“This is a vital, energetic creative place,” Mayhugh said. “I hope that it inspires further art making, that it makes people ask questions and wonder about using a new technique or express an idea that’s been percolating for a while but hasn’t yet found a voice.”