Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize

The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, Inc. (BOPA) is proud to announce the 15th edition of the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. The prize will award $25,000 to a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Baltimore region. Approximately six finalists will be selected for the final review for the prizes; their work will be exhibited in the Walters Art Museum. Finalists not selected for the Sondheim Prize will be awarded an M&T Bank Finalist Award of $2,500 each.

New for this year, they will also be awarding a Sondheim Creative Residency, a six-week-long fully-funded residency at La Civatella Ranieri, in the Umbria region of Italy, to one of the remaining five finalists not selected for the Sondheim Prize.

Additionally, an exhibition of the semifinalists’ work will be featured in a large exhibition during Artscape (July 17-19, 2020). 

Submit your 2020 application today.

Call to Artists: Art Auction 2020

Entry deadline: January 20, 2020

HoCo Arts in MD is currently seeking artists to participate in their juried Art Auction, one of the highlights of their Celebration of the Arts gala, to be held on March 28, 2020.  Artists working in all styles and media are invited to apply. Click here for more information and to apply.

Request for proposals

The Howard County Arts Council, located in Ellicott City, Maryland, is currently seeking proposals from artists with public art experience for ARTsites 2020, a one-year outdoor sculpture exhibit on display in Howard County, Maryland from August 2020 to July 2021. Selected artists will be awarded a $3,000 grant to participate in the exhibit. Deadline to apply is February 28, 2020.

Complete guidelines and submission information is available here.

Opportunity for Artists!

Our friends at the Hyattsville CDC are looking for artists to submit designs to be considered for their Traffic Box Art Project in Riverdale Park. Selected artists will be paid a $500 honorarium and will have their art displayed on a traffic box along a major thoroughfare. 

This call is open to ALL artists, graphic designers, illustrators, and photographers who currently live or work within the State of Maryland. Submitted designs must be original artwork.

Details here.

Support WALA

Every day, in quiet ways, the volunteer attorneys of Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts champion the rights of artists and arts organizations in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. WALA defends the right to free expression. We teach artists how to protect their work, and when necessary, we represent creatives in court. We advocate for stable and increased funding for the arts and humanities, and we promote the interests of artists on Capitol Hill, in the halls of the Wilson Building, and in Richmond and Annapolis. Join us in our fight to defend artistic expression and protect creative innovation.

Donate Now

2019 has been a landmark year for WALA. Constantly evolving to meet legal needs, we have increased our outreach to at-risk and marginalized communities. We’ve acknowledged those who give back by founding the G. Hamilton Loeb Awards for Pro Bono Excellence, and we’ve met a landslide of requests for legal representation by artists of modest means. Help us continue our vital work. A gift to WALA is a gift to the human spirit. WALA nurtures artists, and in return, our local artists nurture the Washington D.C. community, and ultimately humanity. Please make your tax-deductible gift today. Sincerely, John D. Mason Board President PS: Please download the attached WALA Supporter Badge. Display it proudly on your website, your email signature, social media, or wherever you have a digital presence. Let people know that you are making a difference by supporting WALA.

Make Your Gift Today

Opportunity for photographers

Deadline: February 04, 2020

ZEISS PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD 2020

Epiphanies, inventions and transformations from the known to the unknown, we want to see something new. Submissions exploring the landscape, humans, science, political or economic changes, or even something more conceptual, are all welcome. No Entry Fee. Details: http://bitly.com/2RfsqsA

The curious case of the new art gallery at Union Station

Earlier this month I was excited to announce that a new art gallery had opened in the historic and gorgeous building at Union Station in DC.

The gallery, called LOVE ALL SERVE ALL on the Mezzanine, the 2nd floor on the right as one goes up the curved stairs after passing through the Grand Hall... next to Andrews Ties, and it is 2640 square feet.  

It is the labor of love of local DMV artist Amy Marx, a well-known and quite accomplished painter on her own right.

LOVE ALL SERVE ALL Gallery in Union Station

Apparently, even as I write this post, I am being told that Marx is being kicked out of the space!  She notes in a text that last night she was "escorted out of the gallery by seven police... why that was necessary I have no idea... I have no idea period. I still have no idea why this is happening... it's an art gallery..."

I have no idea either, but it is curious to me that a new art space opens in one of the capital's most iconic buildings, and a couple of weeks later the owner of the new art gallery is being escorted out? Sounds like something that The Washington City Paper or The Washington Post should be looking into?

More later as this develops...