Art In Bars

Now, I hear you muttering to yourself as you skim through this blog. “Great,” you mutter, “but how do I get a solo show in a bar?” An excellent question for any emerging artist with a slim showing history, or art student who wants to hit the ground running. There’s a lot you can do if you want to really start pushing a showing career, but that’s for another unsolicited advice day. Today, I just want to let you know about several current open calls.

Why open calls? Well, if your exhibition history on your resume is slim to nill, it will be hard to get a solo show off the bat no matter how wonderful you and your work are. Group shows are excellent for many reasons: one, plumps your resume; two gets you and your work out there, where it can be seen by eyeballs and you can meet and greet the people who make up the artsphere, leading to things to come; three, they are far less work and stress than a solo, but gives you a taste of what will be expected of you in shows to come.

There are many, many open calls at any given time. Some have a fee (and often a cash prize) some are free to enter, some are slightly shady, such as “online only exhibitions” some are very nice plumes for your cap, such as museum shows. If you’re thinking big, as in, national shows where you may need to ship your work to California, or are interested in finding out about grants, you really should be getting The Art Deadline List. There is a premium listing or a free option; both are overwhelming with the amount of open calls.

But I’m thinking local, so here are some Philadelphia open calls, fitting of the Art in Bars theme I would like to highlight today:

The Midwives Collective and Off The Wall Gallery are co-producing a show entitled “The Whole Nine Yards” focusing on unusual textile or fabric media. The entry fee is $5 per work, with the jury awarding up to $500 in prizes. The jury is also responsible for deciding at which gallery selected work will be exhibited. Deadline is November 12, 2009. Full prospectus available on the midwives’s website.

Germ Bookstore is currently accepting submissions for the upcoming February / March 2010 Nikola Tesla themed show. There is no fee to enter, and Germ is also accepting general submissions for artists exhibitions, as long as the work deals with “the occult, conspiracy, post-apocalyptic, heresy, extraterrestrials, or fringe interests.” More information on their site. To submit work, email art@germbooks.com with jpgs and descriptions of work.

Speaking of general open submission policies, Green Line Cafe has a page full of information for you if you would like to show at any of their West Philadelphia locations as does Cafe Estelle. Also, Mew is always looking for window artists. Now you know some of the open calls, all you have to do is perfect your submissions. But that’s another post.