Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture and independent organizations are creating some unique opportunities for artists (and beyond) in the coming year. Participants are invited to think BIG, but deadlines for proposals are approaching fast.
Gallery 4 Culture 2016-2017 Exhibition Call
Deadline: January 11
Gallery 4Culture is a non-commercial exhibition space with tons of potential. It has hosted group and solo shows and multimedia installations, and the organization is especially supportive of emerging artists and those not represented in commercial venues. (Artists represented by a commercial gallery are not eligible for this application.) Who is eligible? Visual artists and teams working in all media and genres (except performance art) residing in King County.
Visit the 4Culture Opportunities page and scroll to King County, WA + Gallery4Culture to find the detailed call to artists, including the materials checklist. The deadline for submissions is 5 PM PST on Monday, January 11, 2016.
Giant Steps by Vital 5 Productions
Deadline: January 14
There’s only one piece of art on the moon right now: a small statuette, “Fallen Astronaut,” alongside a plaque with the names of American and Russian astro/kosmonauts who had died in the space race before the lunar landing in 1971. With Giant Steps, Greg Lundgren of Vital 5 Productions (and Vito’s and The Hideout) invites us to imagine a time when extraterrestrial art will be more common, and has launched an international call for art concepts. It’s open to anyone with an idea, “from the curious teenager to the professional artist to the science fiction enthusiast,” but it has to be achievable, and the guidelines set forth in the proposal process are smart and reasonable.
From the Giant Steps website:
The Pacific Northwest holds a high concentration of space enterprises, including Boeing, Vulcan Aerospace, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Space X, and Blue Origin. Humankind lives closer to outer space than ever before. How does this affect the future of art and culture?
What would artists do given the opportunity to create art in space?
Vetting the most imaginative, innovative, and conceptually rigorous ideas, Vital 5 Productions is looking for proposals to be included in the Giant Steps exhibition. A jury of ten aerospace and arts professionals will determine a winner from the artists and teams included in the exhibition. A cash prize of $10,000 is awarded to the winner.
We invite all students, artists, engineers, architects, designers, and other space-enthusiasts to imagine and propose art projects on the surface of the Moon.
The exhibition will take place March 3 – April 3 in King Street Station (the upper floor which Lundgren and allies renovated and occupied with last year’s Out of Sight exhibition during the Seattle Art Fair). There’s just a week left to apply, so get cracking. The call ends on January 14, 2016 at midnight PST. Check out the guidelines and how to apply online.
Seattle Bridge Residencies for Lighting Designers and Poets
Deadline: February 16
Through Seattle’s 1% for the Arts program, two residencies at some of the city’s many bridges are being offered by the Seattle Department of Transportation and the Office of Arts and Culture. One residency is for regional lighting artists (living within a 100 mile radius of the city) and will be based in the southwest tower of the University Bridge.
The selected lighting artist(s) will undertake an in-depth exploration of Seattle’s three historic bascule bridges: the University, Fremont, and Ballard bridges, and create a conceptual plan for lighting each bridge.
The budget for this residency is $15,000.
The second residency is for a practicing, published poet, fiction or creative non-fiction writer (again, living within 100 miles of Seattle) who will be based in the northwest tower of the Fremont Bridge to “undertake an in-depth exploration of the bridge and write a piece in response to the experience.” The budget for this residency is $10,000.
Students are not eligible for these residencies. Learn more and apply online: University Bridge residency, Fremont Bridge residency. Deadline for both is Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 11 PM PST.
Call for Mural Artists by Urban ArtWorks in SoDo and Downtown
Urban ArtWorks has been busily beautifying bare walls and utility infrastructure throughout Seattle, and they aren’t slowing down in 2016. They are currently installing signal box art in Fremont, Capitol Hill and South lake Union, and its first mural of the year was just unveiled in SoDo by artist Devin Liston. There are lost of opportunities coming, but there isn’t an official call, but as Director Kathleen Warren puts it, “We love playing matchmaker,” between artists with a concept and property owners with walls to fill. Mural artists should contact her at kathleen@urbanartworks.org.
Public Art Boot Camp with Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
Deadline: February 2
Maybe you are an emerging artist who wants to do more public art, but you don’t know how to really get started. The Office of Arts & Culture wants to help you become part of the next generation of artists working in public spaces with a Public Art Boot Camp. Up to 30 artists will be admitted to the free, two-day intensive training session.
Applicants should have an interest in exploring the presentation of their work in public settings and an interest in community-building or enhancing the built environment. Applicants should also be committed to learning how to maintain artistic creativity and vision while attending to the demands of the public process. Priority will be given to emerging artists, artists from historically under-represented communities and artists from communities of color.
The deadline for applications is Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 11 PM PST. Learn more about eligibility and how to apply online.
Good luck to all!
