The Sky Is Always There Prospectus and Application

Glen Arbor Arts Center [GAAC] Exhibition: January 10 – March 20, 2025
Application period: Through November 7, 2024 at 11:59 pm EST

The sky is vast, and always there. Is it so familiar that we forget to consider it? Acknowledge it? Is the sky just more psychic wallpaper?

The sky has many guises:

• Big sky.
• Winter sky.
• Summer sky.
• Night sky: a place of constellations, the Aurora Borealis, comets, and the chalkboard on which we create stories that help us explain ourselves and the world to ourselves.

There’s a blue sky overhead, and there’s blue sky-ing — creative or visionary thinking, unconstrained by practicalities, that take place in the head.

The sky is a busy place. It’s the place where gods live. It’s the place through which birds, kites, drones, and planes fly. And that guy on the chair with the balloons.

The Sky Is Always There is an exhibition that asks applicants to move beyond direct representation, and into interpretation; to think beyond portraits of puffy cloud, and, instead, dive into those clouds. The sky’s the limit. Juried.

Some thoughts about the sky. Two examples:

Looking For

Visual art in 2D + 3D, made by the applicant between 2022 – 2024.

Innovative, fresh responses that move beyond the easiest answer.

Open To

2D and 3D work including paper, clay, fiber, metal, wood, glass, drawing, painting, printmaking, furniture, mixed media, photography, weaving, sculpture, stitchery, and more.

Size Restrictions

• 2D work should not exceed 48” in total width or 65” in total length.
• 3D work may be freestanding or wall mounted. FREESTANDING: Work must be easily moved, not to exceed 35 pounds. Because of companion programs planned in conjunction with the exhibition, 3D work will be occasionally and temporarily relocated in the gallery and in the GAAC. WALL MOUNTED: Work must weigh 15 pounds or less, and be wired or mounted with a French Cleat system. Please call the GAAC/Gallery Manger Sarah Bearup-Neal if you have questions about the system of hanging of your entry.

Application Fee

Applicants may enter up to two [2] submissions for the juror’s consideration. $25 GAAC member, $35 nonmember. This is a nonrefundable fee.

Exhibition Calendar

• Exhibition runs January 10 – March 20, 2025
• Apply on-line: Through November 7, 2024 at 11:59 pm EST
• Notification of acceptance: mid-November
• Shipped work deadline: December 30, 2024 – January 2, 2025
• Drop-off: Friday, January 3, 10 am – 2 pm; Saturday, January 4, 10 am – 2 pm
• Reception: January 10, 2025, 5 – 7 pm

Juror

Mary Hall graduated from Grand Valley State University with a bachelor’s degree in Art Education [printmaking emphasis]. She has been the K-12 Art Educator in Suttons Bay since 2012,  and has presented at the Michigan Art Education Association and National Art Education Association Conferences numerous times, most recently at the MAEA conference in Grand Rapids in 2022.Her presentation focused on how to teach a choice-based art curriculum while also addressing the National Core Arts Standards. Mary has experience teaching students from young 5-year-olds all the way up to Advanced Placement Art & Design. She specializes in teaching and writing a K-12 art curriculum that is student-centered and choice-based.

Awards

Three awards will be given: $500 Best of Show; and two, $160 Merit Awards. These awards are made possible by Amy L. Clark-Carels Family Fund, and Barbara and Victor Klein Art Fund.

Photographs

You may submit up to 2 works for the juror’s consideration.

You are required to submit an image of the overall work. You also have the option of providing 1 additional, detail image per work submitted. Please provide well-composed, focused images of your work. This is the work people will view online. Present your work as well as you possibly can. Do not photograph 2D work behind glass. If framed, please do not include the 2D artwork’s frame in your exhibition image unless it is part of the composition vs. a finishing detail.

The Sky Is Always There exhibition will be installed in the GAAC gallery, and viewable as an on-line gallery on the GAAC website.

Requirements

• Work submitted must be one-of-a-kind, innovative, and original in design. Work derivative of other artists, or work created in a workshop with the collaboration of an instructor is not accepted.
• An entry may be comprised of multiple units [e.g. a diptych]; but may not exceed the maximum dimensions or weights described below. If offered for sale, a single entry comprised of multiple units must be sold for one price. The individual units may not be sold separately.
• Work submitted must have been completed in the last two years [made from 2022 – 2024].
• Work must be gallery ready, when submitted. Paintings and other wall works should be finished or framed. Please use gallery wire. No saw tooth hanging hardware is allowed. NOTE: Wet paintings, work submitted on warped canvases, work that has evidence of pet hair, food stains or other marks/detritus that are not an intended part of the composition will not be exhibited. Exhibitors will be asked to bring their accepted work up to gallery-ready standards before they are allowed to be part of the exhibit.
• No work will be accepted after the dates and times for delivery listed on the prospectus.
• The artist’s contact email provided on the application must remain active during the submissions and exhibition process. The artist is responsible for checking their email for exhibition acceptance and/or decline, and other information regarding the exhibition.

Artist’s Statement | REQUIRED

The Sky Is Always There applicants must submit a short [100 words max] statement that provides context for looking at the artwork. How does your work respond to, and answer the creative problem at the heart of this exhibit?

Sales

• The sale price written on the application is the FINAL price if the work is accepted in the exhibition. Exhibitors may not change sale price after the work is accepted for exhibition.
• The GAAC will retain a 40% commission on work sold during the exhibition. Artists receive 60% of the final selling price. Artists will receive payment following the close of the exhibition.

NOTE: The GAAC staff and Exhibitions Committee reserve the right to the final selection of work to be shown in the exhibition. Accepted work may not be removed before the close of the exhibition.

For More Information

Contact Sarah Bearup-Neal, GAAC Gallery Manager: (231) 334-6112

Apply Here

The application period has ended.