Call for Art
What does hope look like to you?
Take any one of our current struggles and imagine how we might make a deep change, and come out on the other side, to reimagine our world, making progress toward change for any one of the multiple pandemics. Artists have the creativity and imagination necessary to visualize worlds without violence, threats, racism and other ‘isms, worlds where peace, justice, and unity thrive.
Pandemics offer time for deep change. A hard reset.
“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging our prejudice and hatred…our dead rivers and smoky skies…or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.” – Arundhati Roy
Sometimes our struggles can seem hard to overcome. How can we envision ways forward from issues like:
- COVID-19 (sickness, grief, loss, isolation, fear for loved ones, etc.)
- Systemic Racism and other Injustices
- Economic Crisis (lost jobs, homes, food insecurity)
- Climate Change
- Political Polarization
Knowing this, Krannert Art Museum, the Museum of the Grand Prairie, The Urbana Free Library, Urbana Arts and Culture Program, the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Illinois, and Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center invite artists to submit artwork that reimagines the world as we know it and visualizes the other worlds we know are possible, in an exhibit entitled: Pandemics as a Portal to Change.
Submission Requirements
We invite you to create and submit artwork in whatever form you choose: visual art, creative writing, original music, dance or other performance, audio, or video.
Please submit items in the following formats where possible:
- Images (150 dpi; 3mb, JPG, PNG, or PDF)
- Video (1-2 minute video, mp4; 1080p)
- Audio files (mp3)
- Text (PDF)
To Submit
Complete the Pandemics as a Portal to Change submission form. Submitting work grants permission to the organizers to include your work in the exhibition, with the artist credit you supply. Deadline to submit: April 19, 2021
Exhibition
Creative work gathered from this project will be compiled and displayed in a video airing on Urbana Public Television and archived by Museum of the Grand Prairie for potential use as future historical documentation of our time. The May 3 launch event will begin a season of engagement with the ideas your work addresses.
Pandemics as a Portal to Change aims to provide a number of exhibition opportunities. Inclusion in digital or museum displays is dependent on submission formatting and organizers may be required to modify, with permission from the artist, submissions depending on exhibition needs.
Eligibility
We invite submissions from community members (teens to seniors) from Champaign County are encouraged to submit original artwork, music, video, or writing.
Pandemics as a Portal to Change is co-sponsored by: Krannert Art Museum, the Museum of the Grand Prairie, The Urbana Free Library, Urbana Arts and Culture Program, the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Illinois, and Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center.
Timeline
Week of February 22 - Call for Art Released
Feb. 22-April 19 - Submissions Period (workshops/programs TBA)
Monday, April 19 - Submission Deadline
May 3 - Launch of the Pandemics as a Portal to Change Virtual Exhibition
Wed. May 5 at 7pm - Pandemics as a Portal to Change Virtual Reception at Sounds Like Community, UCIMC Program
