CEC ArtsLink Announces an Open Call for Artists to participate in the 8th Art Prospect International Festival of Public Art
8th Art Prospect Festival: Forms of Unity
September 23 - October 23, 2021
Public spaces and arts organizations around the world
September 23 - 26, 2021
Gaza Palace of Culture, St. Petersburg
Open Call Description:
CEC ArtsLink invites artists from around the world (with the exception of St. Petersburg, Russia), to propose public art projects examining how contemporary art organizations engage, support and unite local communities. The 8th Art Prospect Festival will include twenty projects by artists from around the world, created in collaboration with local arts organizations, as well as an on-site Festival of public art at the Gaza Palace of Culture in St. Petersburg. All projects will be documented and publicized on the Art Prospect website (www.cecartslink.org) and social media platforms.
Proposed projects should be created in the artist’s city of residence and be displayed at a local cultural center. Projects should address the Festival theme, Forms of Unity, and explore questions related to mutual aid and coexistence: What exactly can I do to help others? How can my actions affect the people around me? How can I change the current situation, make it better? What is the role of the contemporary culture center in my home city? Public art works in all media and disciplines will be considered. Public art works can be displayed for up to one-month beginning with the Festival opening on September 23, 2021. Details about the application process can be found below.
Selected projects will be documented on the festival website www.artprospect.org and on the interactive map on the Art Prospect App. Participating artists should send photo and/or video documentation of their project no later than August 27, 2021.
During the Festival, artists will be invited to speak about their work in panel discussions, online interviews, and other virtual events.
Application Requirements:
Project applications must be sent to CEC ArtsLink at artprospect@cecartslink.org
by July 10, 2021.
Artists from around the world are welcome to apply to conduct projects at their local arts center. Projects taking place in St. Petersburg, Russia are not eligible for consideration.
The application must include the following materials:
Completed Application Form in word format
Photo Documentation (no more than 3 images in JPEG form, each no larger than 300 KB)
Name, location, and brief description of local cultural center hosting the public art project.
Artist CV (no more than 1 page, in either Word or PDF)
CEC ArtsLink will award a $300 honorarium to selected artists/collectives upon completion of their public art projects. CEC ArtsLink does not provide additional funding for the cost of materials, transportation or photo documentation.
Selected projects will be announced by July 20, 2021.
Additional information about the Art Prospect Festival can be found at www.artprospect.org
About the Festival
Art Prospect is an annual public art festival founded in 2012 by the nonprofit organization CEC ArtsLink. The Festival transforms familiar urban landscapes, filling streets, courtyards, parks, and other public spaces with contemporary art works. The Festival has featured work by more than 250 artists from 20 countries around the world and more than 30,000 people have attended its events in a variety of neighborhoods in St. Petersburg. The Art Prospect Festival has also taken place in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Baku (Azerbaijan), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Kyiv (Ukraine).
8th Art Prospect Festival: Forms of Unity
An invisible threat suddenly halted our habitual movements in March 2020, raising questions about mutual aid and coexistence as we adapted to life in the pandemic reality. As the last year has demonstrated, the challenges faced by humanity cannot be overcome in isolation; the individualism valued by the market economy does not meet the challenges of our time. As in other watershed moments, now is the time to unite, come together, listen to each other, demonstrate our concern, and protect those at risk.
What exactly can I do to help others? How can my actions affect the people around me? How can I change the current situation, make it better? How can I help others? Asking ourselves these questions, we come together and search for forms for coexistence, reciprocity, and caring for each other and our world to avoid its impending splitting.
The 8th Art Prospect Festival: Forms of Unity includes more than 30 interventions, installations, performances, and Augmented Reality installations at the Gaza Palace of Culture in St. Petersburg and 20 public art works by international artists at contemporary art centers around the world. Thirty artists and collectives from Russia, Finland, Korea, Norway, Switzerland, and the United States have been selected to create art works for the St. Petersburg Festival that reflect on forms of unity, both physical and emotional and respond to the unique history and architecture of the Gaza Palace of Culture and Kirovsky Region. Through these art works, artists aim to engage local residents and spark a dialogue about how our society can come together to improve our local environment and help those in need.
The Art Prospect Festival is supported by the Ivan Gaza Palace of Culture, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Pro Helvetia Moscow, OCA, FRAME, Kettering Family Foundation, and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
If you have any questions about the Festival or Open Competition, please contact us at artprospect@cecartslink.org