Call for Work: Deadline 10 May 2019

"American Conversations"

New juried exhibit opportunity
for St Louis regional artists 

Entry deadline: May 10, 2019 

AMERICAN CONVERSATIONS

Art Saint Louis presents "American Conversations," an all media juried visual art exhibition that will feature artworks that examine what it looks like to live in America in the year 2019. We invite all explorations & interpretations of this theme and encourage all media, styles and techniques. Open to artists 21+ in the St. Louis, MO region.

EXHIBITION SPACE & DATES

Art Saint Louis Gallery in downtown St. Louis, MO. Exhibition dates: August 3-September 12, 2019. Free reception on Saturday, August 3, 2019, 5-7 p.m.

ELIGIBILITY

• Open to artists 21 years of age and older living in the St. Louis, Missouri region and surrounding 200-mile radius. Our 200-mile radius service area includes MO, IL, parts of KY and IN.
• Artist also must be resident of the St. Louis region/200-mile radius when show begins (August 3, 2019) in order to submit work & participate, if selected for exhibition.

ENTRY DEADLINE

The deadline to submit works for this exhibit is May 10, 2019 (11:59 p.m. MST).  

OUR JURORS

Serving as our Jurors for this exhibit are StL area artists Yvonne Osei and Eric Schultis. Yvonne Osei is an artist and currently serves as Curator in Residence, COCA, and as adjunct art Professor at Webster University. Raised in Ghana, Yvonne earned a BFA from Webster University (2013) and MFA from Washington University in St. Louis (2016) and is currently pursuing a MS in Fashion Business & Entrepreneurship from Lindenwood University (2019). From 2016-17 Yvonne served as a Romare Bearden Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Osei's work has been exhibited internationally and she is represented locally by Bruno David Gallery. The recipient of numerous awards & fellowships, she received the 2018 Creative Stimulus Award from Critical Mass for the Visual Arts, St. Louis. Artist Eric Shultis is Professor of Art, St. Louis Community College Florissant Valley, where he has been a role model and leader in the visual arts program at the College since 1998. In his career, he has also been an instructor at: Lansing Community College, Lansing, MI; Trinity College, Chicago, IL; and University of New Mexico. He has served as Visiting Artist and Lecturer at a number of U.S. institutions and his artwork has been presented in solo & group exhibits throughout the U.S. Eric holds a MFA in painting from University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (1990) and BFA in drawing from Kendall School of Design, Grand Rapids, MI (1983).

AWARDS

Awards of Excellence will be selected by the Jurors for this exhibit and include (1) $250 Best of Show Award of Excellence and (4) non-cash Awards of Excellence. All five Award recipients will then be eligible for our "Honor Awards 2020" ten-artist curated exhibit presented at Art Saint Louis, June 13-July 16, 2020. Exhibit Juror/curator is Amy MacLennan, artist, Associate Professor, Department of Art, McKendree University.

ENTRY FORM/APPLICATION

Entries for this exhibition are accepted online only at here.
  

ABOUT THE ONLINE ENTRY PROCESS

The online entry & image upload process does require time, depending on your advance preparedness and image sizes, so please allow yourself adequate time when applying for & submitting your work to this exhibit. Advance registration prior to entry deadline date and image uploads to a Portfolio are highly recommended. There is no fee to register to use the CallforEntry process, but there is an entry fee to register for our exhibit payable online or by check (see below).

WHAT IS A JURIED EXHIBIT?

• A juried exhibition is a competitive exhibit process. The artworks that you submit will be in competition against all of the other artworks submitted for consideration for this exhibit. Some artworks will be selected for the final show, while others will not be selected. The exhibition Jurors make all final decisions as to which artworks are selected for the exhibit. If you do not wish to enter into a competition, then please do not submit your artworks for this juried exhibition.
• At no point during the jurying process are our Jurors shown any artist-entrants names. This process is called a Blind Jury and your works are most fairly considered by the Jurors. The Jurors are shown a digital image presentation of only the artwork, the artwork title, year, media, dimensions--NO names of artists are shown and in fact, most Jurors do not see/know the name of the selected artists until the exhibition actually goes up on Gallery walls, months after jurying has taken place.
• Artwork availability: Please do not double-book your artwork, do not commit it for other conflicting exhibits or sell it without possibility of exhibition availability if you plan on entering your work into our show. Only submit artworks for jurying that are available for exhibition.
• Please do not enter work for jurying if you are not able to follow through with the rules of entry/art & exhibit guidelines.

ABOUT ART SAINT LOUIS

Located on the ground floor of the historic and beautifully renovated art deco style Park Pacific building at 1223 Pine Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, Art Saint Louis is home to one of the most popular and frequently visited exhibition spaces in the St. Louis region. Our current space was created in 2013 and builds upon the organization's 34-year success in connecting St. Louis regional artists and audiences, our 2,700 square foot space Gallery boasts a year-round series of professionally juried group exhibitions showcasing the best of the region's contemporary visual art. Highlighting each exhibition, Art Saint Louis opening receptions are a cultural mainstay in downtown St. Louis and are followed throughout the run of each exhibit with extensive viewing hours Monday through Saturday and an average of over 500 visitors per week. Uniquely designed as a gallery/café hybrid, the space is also the one and only home of Catalyst Coffee Bar by Art Saint Louis, making it a cultural and social destination like no other in the St. Louis region. Find Art Saint Louis on Facebook to view highlights from our previous exhibits in our photo albums.

SPECIFICATIONS-ALL ARTWORKS

• Limit THREE (3) original artworks in all media, styles, and techniques that respond to the theme of the exhibit, "American Conversations." Theme described at top of this call for entry.
• Artwork must be completed between 2016-2019. Works from before 2016 not considered.
• Works not exhibited in any juried exhibit in St. Louis region during 6 months prior to exhibit dates.
• Works not previously exhibited in any exhibit in Art Saint Louis Gallery.
• NO ceiling installed work, this includes installation works.
• NO artworks that sit directly on Gallery floor.
• 2-d works must be framed or, if not framed, pre-approved presentation.
• Works on canvas may be gallery-wrapped, strip-framed or framed.
• Size limits: Final installation size on all 2-d and/or wall-displayed/hung work not to exceed 6' (72") WIDE or 7' (84") HIGH/TALL, this includes frame.
• Weight limit: 2-d wall-hung works not to exceed 30 lbs.
• NO works that are nailed, pinned, tacked, taped, velcroed, painted on, glued, adhered, or affixed directly to/on Gallery walls. Art Saint Louis uses traditional hanging hardware (hooks/nails) to hang artworks from their wires on the back of the pieces- however, we will not nail or tack an artwork directly to a wall, nor will we velcro, glue or use any other substance to directly apply an artwork to the wall. ALL works must hang by/from standard picture hanging hardware.
• No loose plexi that is clipped or nailed to wall.
• Artist must provide all equipment necessary to present video or artwork requiring electricity, incl. cords, adapters, DVD player, monitor, etc.; OR Art Saint Louis has one 20" monitor permanently mounted on gallery wall on which selected video artworks can be presented during exhibition. Headphones are provided if audio is a integral to artwork. Artist must provide MP3 or MP4 file on thumbdrive.

  

3-D WORK/SCULPTURE

• ALL rules/specifications as listed above pertaining to 2-D work also apply to 3-D work.
• Larger sculptures, oversized 2-d work, complicated pieces, and/or installation works must be installed by artist under direction of Art Saint Louis Artistic Director.
• We are only able to exhibit pedestal-displayed or wall-hung sculpture.
• Gallery owns a limited number of standard sized pedestals & will provide for display of 3-d work. If your 3-d artwork is odd-sized, excessively heavy, or requires a very specific sized pedestal, plan on providing that pedestal or platform yourself, please.
• 3-d works that are extremely fragile, very small, that have a very small bottom/base, are unstable, or do not sit flat on a pedestal are not considered.
• Do not submit any 3-d artwork that will not fully sit flat/level on pedestal or other display surface.
• NO ceiling installed work, this includes installation works. 
• NO artworks that sit directly on Gallery floor.   

JURYING & IMAGE REQUIREMENTS

• Judging is done by JPEGs online only at CallForEntry.org.
• LIMIT: 3 artworks.
• The image limit reads 6, and this allows for either one detail or one alternate view per artwork. Do not exceed 3 artworks total or you will be disqualified.
• IMPORTANT: IF you submit more than 2 images per artwork, the Jurors will NOT be shown your additional images. Any more than 2 images per artwork is not permitted and all additional images will be moved to the "withdrawn" category.
• NOTE: Multi-paneled artworks count as one artwork, as long as they are presented as one artwork and the total size of the artwork does not exceed our size limit rules. An artwork that is a diptych (2 panels) = one artwork; a triptych (3 panels) = one artwork, and so on. Please photograph the overall artwork and only be sure to include one detail/close-up view. if you submit images of all 3 panels and a full view of your triptych, you have exceeded your image limit.

Please make sure that the digital images of your artworks are:

• In focus.
• Cropped to feature only your artwork.
• Free of any watermarks or name imprint.
• Free of a time-date stamp.
• Please photograph your 2-d work before you have it professionally framed. If the only image you have of your artwork is of the work framed, please use image editing software to crop the frame out of the image. Your artwork is what will be judged, not the frame. 

Upload options for image files:

• File format: JPEG only.
• File dimensions: No smaller than 1920 pixels on the longest size.
• File resolution: 72 ppi/dpi (standard web resolution).
• File size: 5MB maximum.

Upload options for video files:

• File formats: 3GP, WMV, AVI, MOV, ASF, MPG, MP4, M2T, MKV, M2TS.
• Resolution: minimum 620x480; max. 1920x1080.
• Aspect ratio: 4:3 or 16:9.
• Bit rate: recommended above 240 kbps.
• Frame rate: minimum 12 fps, recommended 30 fps. The frame rate of the original video should be maintained without re-sampling. In particular, pulldown and other frame-rate re-sampling techniques are strongly discouraged.
• Codec: h.264, h.263, mpeg-1, mpeg-2, mpeg-4, Windows Media Video, and motion jpeg mpeg-1 muxed, Apple Lossless
• Container: 3gp, asf, avi, mov, mpeg, mpeg-2, mp4, ogg
• Video file size: 100 MB maximum.

IMPORTANT:

Submissions that do not comply with rules of entry will not be presented to the Jurors. Artworks selected for exhibition that are not accurately depicted by JPEGs may be removed from exhibit at Artistic Director's discretion.

HOW TO APPLY

Click here for a Step-by-Step guide on how to apply to exhibits through CallForEntry.org. You can also watch a short video on How to Apply here. The good folks at CallforEntry.org are better suited to assist you with technical issues with your online entry. For assistance, please contact cafe@westaf.org or 303/629-1166. You can reach CaFÉ's staff during weekday business hours (they are located in Denver).

THE JURYING PROCESS

The method by which ALL exhibitions are juried at Art Saint Louis is always a fair and blind/anonymous process. What this means is that at no time before or during the jurying process do our Jurors know the names of entering artists. Exhibit Jurors are presented all entrants' JPEGs in an anonymous digital image presentation and the only information provided to them pertains to the artwork and includes the following: artwork title, year, media, dimensions, and method of presentation (displayed on the wall, sits on a pedestal). To repeat: Jurors are never shown the names of any artists entrants during the jurying process. All artworks that you submit for jurying are presented one after the other in the presentation that the jurors view. So, if you are artist #25, your artworks/entries are in the presentation after artist #24 and before artist #26. From the jurying presentation and information provided about the artworks, the jurors make their selections for the final exhibit. Artwork selection decisions are in part based on a set of specific jurying instructions & criteria relating to the theme of the exhibit as well as specific conditions & rules of the Gallery. This is a FAIR jurying process. Jurors often do not even see names for selected artists until they arrive to the Gallery to view the final exhibit on the Gallery walls, months after an exhibit has been juried.

SALES & INSURANCE

• If you are accepted for this exhibit and sell your accepted artwork prior to the show, we recommend that you please sell the artwork with the condition that it will be available for this exhibit. If that condition isn't possible, please do not enter that artwork to our exhibit. Remember that our entry fee is non-refundable and artworks may not be substituted.
• All works submitted for this exhibit must be available for the show dates. We will not exhibit substitutes.
• All artworks must either have a sale price or be marked Not for Sale (NFS).
• No works marked POR (price on request) will be accepted.
• Artist's sale prices listed with original entry submitted for jurying may not be changed after entry deadline.
• All sales are through Art Saint Louis with 30% donation/commission on work sold to ASL and 70% to artist. Sale price includes Art Saint Louis' commission.
• Artist responsible for delivery of sold work to buyer at end of exhibit.
• Artworks are insured at 50% of retail value during exhibit.
• Artist responsible for work in transit to/from ASL.  

FRAMING & FINAL PRESENTATION

• All work selected for exhibit must be delivered to Gallery ready to install.
• All rules listed in "SPECIFICATIONS" category above are also applicable here.
• 2-d work must be framed & equipped with hanging wire stretched across back of artwork.
• NO sawtooth hangers, clip-style frames or keyhole mounts.
• French Cleat mounts okay.
• Works on canvas may be gallery-wrapped, strip-framed or framed.
• 2-d works must be framed or, if not framed, pre-approved presentation.
• NO works that are nailed, pinned, tacked, taped, velcroed, painted on, glued, adhered, or affixed directly to/on Gallery walls.
• No loose plexi that is clipped or nailed to wall.
• Oversized, heavy, or installation work must be installed by artist under direction of Artistic Director.
• Artist must provide all equipment necessary to present video or artwork requiring electricity, incl. cords, adapters, DVD player, monitor, etc.; OR Art Saint Louis has one 20" monitor permanently mounted on gallery wall on which selected video artworks can be presented during exhibition. Headphones are provided if audio is a integral to artwork. rtist must provide MP3 or MP4 file on thumbdrive.
• Artworks requiring electricity: Artist must provide all cords, adapters, cord protectors & equipment required to present work.
• Specific installation requirements must be resolved in advance with directions/devices provided by artist.
• Art Saint Louis reserves the right to install accepted works in a manner deemed necessary for a well-designed exhibition or for security purposes.

ENTRY FEE

• Entry fee is non-refundable.
• Artist may submit up to 3 artworks for the one fee.
• $35 Non- member entry fee; OR
• $20/Art Saint Louis member* entry fee.
• Fee payable by credit card or PayPal through https://www.callforentry.org or by check to Art Saint Louis, 1223 Pine St., St. Louis, MO 63103.  

ENTRY FEE SCHOLARSHIP UNDERWRITING

• To provide as much opportunity as possible for artists at work in our region, Art Saint Louis is pleased to offer scholarship underwriting of entry fees for individuals for whom such entry fees might otherwise be a financial barrier to participation.
• To be considered for scholarship underwriting, please submit a written request to info@artstlouis.org relaying your request, including the title of the exhibition/Call for Entry ("American Conversations"), and your financial need.
• A limited number of scholarships are available for each exhibition, and will be awarded by Art Saint Louis on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of Art Saint Louis.
• Requests for scholarship funds do not guarantee approval or scholarship underwriting.

*MEMBERSHIP IN ART SAINT LOUIS

Membership in Art Saint Louis is open to all. Membership is not required to have your work considered for or juried into this or any ASL exhibit. Membership does have its benefits, including discounts on entry fees--the reduced Art Saint Louis member entry fee for this show is $20 and the non-member fee is $35. Benefits of membership discounts on entry fees to juried exhibits, include a weekly e-newsletter, a Membership & Resource Directory, access to a Members Only area of our website, 10% discount on all art purchases from the ASL Gallery, 10% discounts at our Catalyst Coffee Bar, and more. To download a Membership brochure and join Art Saint Louis today, visit the Art Saint Louis website (PayPal accepted). As an Art Saint Louis member, you can take advantage of the reduced member entry fee for this & every exhibit. Entry fee payment is a the very end of the entry application process and there are simply two choices: non-member or member.

DIRECT LINK TO ONLINE ENTRY

• The direct link to the online entry is here: https://artist.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=5927 

You can find info about the exhibit on our website here: https://artstlouis.org/index.php/2011-10-08-03-21-13/calls-for-entries/812-call-for-entries-american-conversations

VOLUNTEERING

• As a non-profit artists' organization, Art Saint Louis relies on volunteer support to help present our exhibitions.
• All exhibiting artists are required to volunteer 4 hours per artwork selected of time to the production of this exhibit; OR artists may contribute food or goods for the opening reception (value $20/per artwork), help out in the Gallery, OR may buy-out volunteer time

at $5/hour or $20/per artwork. 

• Volunteering, donating goods or buying out volunteer time IS required, this is not optional. 
• Volunteer sign-up upon delivery of accepted artworks for exhibit.
• Cash, contributions of goods, or in-kind services are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law. Artist is responsible for record-keeping of donated items.

COMMUNICATIONS RE: EXHIBIT
All communications to artists in regards to this exhibition are made by email. Please be sure that you have a working email address. Save robin@artstlouis.org and info@artstlouis.org as safe senders. If you use gmail, please be sure to check your Promotions folder for any emails from Art Saint Louis, as our mail may up there.

PUBLICITY

• Art Saint Louis reserves the right to photograph all exhibited works for web use and publicity purposes. Art Saint Louis reserves the right to use digital images submitted for jurying for publicity of exhibition including but not limited to email, web use and social media. Accepted artists will be required to send high resolution JPEGs of accepted artworks to Art Saint Louis for exhibition records/paperwork and publicity.
• NEW: In addition to sharing your featured artwork from our exhibit on our website, press releases, and social media (including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more), in this new year, Art Saint Louis is furthering our promotional efforts on behalf of all artists featured in the ASL gallery. As of January 2019, all artworks showcased in the ASL gallery will be given additional exposure through listing on our ArtLoupe mobile app for visual art, a national publishing, discovery and sales platform for visual art that is created, owned and operated by Art Saint Louis. Art Saint Louis will publish your accepted artwork on our ArtLoupe mobile app and will continue to promote the artworks during and continuing after the run of the exhibition. This will provide not only additional exposure for your artwork but further sales opportunities as well, allowing ArtLoupe users across the US to discover and purchase your work. Artworks listed Not for Sale in the Art Saint Louis gallery will be marked Not for Sale on ArtLoupe as well. If you wish to opt out of having your work listed on ArtLoupe, or for any reason wish to have the listing removed at any point, please feel free to email us at info@artstlouis.org and let us know, and we'll remove the listing accordingly. We look forward to spotlighting your work in this new way. 

DELIVERY of ACCEPTED WORKS FOR EXHIBIT  

and PICK-UP of EXHIBITED WORKS at END OF EXHIBIT

• Artworks juried into exhibit are to be hand-delivered to Art Saint Louis Gallery on the following dates: Friday, July 21, 2019, 8 a.m.-3:45 p.m. or Saturday, July 22, 9 a.m.-2:45 p.m.
• Works accepted for exhibit but not delivered by 3 p.m. July 22 will not be exhibited.
• Exhibited artworks are to be picked-up at the end of the show on Friday, September 13, 2019, 8 a.m.-3:45 p.m., or Saturday, September 14, 9 a.m.-2:45 p.m.
• Exhibited works may not be removed from ASL prior to 8 a.m. Friday, September 13. 2019.
• ALL exhibited works must be removed from Gallery by 3 p.m. Saturday, September 14, 2019.

LEGAL
Having submitted artworks for jurying & having paid the entry fee, artist (1) accepts all conditions listed in the aforementioned rules of entry/exhibit prospectus; (2) represents, warrants and covenants that artist is not infringing on any proprietary right, copyright, patent right or any other right of any third party, and artist will indemnify Art Saint Louis and its agents, employees, affiliates, licensors, and business partners harmless from and against any and all costs, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including attorneys' fees)incurred in relation to, arising from, or for the purpose of avoiding, any claim or demand from a third party that the submission, ownership, display, sale or the presentation of your artworks violate any applicable law or regulation, or the rights of any third party. This is legal & binding. Accepted artworks may not be substituted and prices may not be changed once submitted for jurying.

PRESENTER & SPONSORS 

This exhibit is presented by Art Saint Louis and is supported with funding from Missouri Arts Council and Regional Arts Commission.

  

EXHIBIT or ART SAINT LOUIS QUESTIONS?

Robin Hirsch-Steinhoff, Artistic Director, Art Saint Louis, robin@artstlouis.org

or 314/241-4810 (2#), Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. 

NEED TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE or
HAVE ONLINE APPLICATION QUESTIONS?

• If this is your first time using this online application process, it's in your best interest to register (free) and upload your images into an image Portfolio on CallforEntry.org sooner rather than later, just in case you face any challenges or require assistance. That way, when you do want to submit your works for our entry, you will be ready to go and the process will run smoothly--depending on your computer and internet service.  

IF you require assistance and are having technical challenges with the online application process, uploading images or any other issue, there is a HELP page you can visit for troubleshooting. Or, the good people at CallforEntry.org (also referred to as CaFÉ) are available Monday through Friday during business hours only and can be reached by email at cafe@westaf.org or 303/629-1166

AMERICAN CONVERSATIONS

E X H I B I T   C A L E N D A R

DEADLINE for entry: May 10, 2019, 11:59 p.m. MST
ONLINE ENTRIES ONLY 

Jurying Notifications: Jury results will be emailed to ALL artist-entrants by June 14, 2019.

Accepted works delivered to Art Saint Louis:
Friday, July 21, 2019, 8 a.m.-3:45 p.m.
OR
Saturday, July 22, 9 a.m.-2:45 p.m.

Install exhibit: Tuesday, July 24, 2019, 4-6 p.m.

Exhibition Dates: August 3-September 12, 2019

FREE Opening Reception: Saturday, August 3, 5-7 p.m.

Pick-up exhibited works:
Friday, September 13, 2019, 8 a.m.-3:45 p.m., or Saturday, September 14, 9 a.m.-2:45 p.m.
No artworks may be removed from the Gallery prior to 8 a.m., September 13.

 
Questions? Robin Hirsch-Steinhoff, Artistic Director, Art Saint Louis,

Weekdays: 8 a.m.-4 p.m. 314/241-4810, 2# or  robin@artstlouis.org

Art Saint Louis

1223 Pine Street

St. Louis, MO 63103