Getting known

I would like to begin a debate on the Stanthorpe Arts Festival.  When browsing through the webpage of the Southern Downs Regional Council regarding its galleries,  I noticed that the Arts Festival acquires works of ‘noted names’.
Does that send me the message as a local artist, that it is a waste of time and entry fee to enter this art prize? A few years back I was selected to exhibit with other Queensland regional artists at the State Library Gallery. We all had a morning with half a dozen of Brisbane and Gold Coast major dealers. The question was asked, “How do we get our  names known.” The reply was that we needed to be in a Dealer’s stable. We don’t approach them – they approach us!
The recommendation was to be hung in the Warwick Art Prize and the Stanthorpe Arts Festival. With recent changes to these prizes, this avenue has now been closed for all Queensland regional artists.
The Stanthorpe Gallery now appears to have a policy of only hanging a small number of entries and there is no guarantee that the judge will see all entries. There is no Ombudsman for the artist. Did anyone see any local artists hung in the last show?
By comparison with other prizes with bigger prize money, we are only attracting a lower level of known names.
It is more prestigious and cheaper to enter the Archibald Prize!  Those artworks are selected for hanging by a panel, on merit and then judged on merit. Not looked at by one judge who is guided by a president on what he wants in the collection. This latter method is open to corruption or nepotism, etc.
Roslyn Creevy,
Wyberba