AMPLIFIER - GLOBAL OPEN CALL FOR ART
nat rosasco • April 23, 2020
In response to COVID-19, Amplifier and our partners are launching an emergency campaign with top art curators and public-health advisors from around the world.
We are currently looking for symbols that help promote mental health, well-being, and social change work during these stressful times. We are also looking for work that can envision the world we know is possible on the other side of this pandemic. What will we take with us and what will we leave behind? Show us your vision for that new world!
In solidarity with our global community of artists, we will award $1,000 apiece to 60 artists, with new winning works announced each week through May 8th. These artworks will be distributed widely, both online and in the physical locations where they are needed most. All art selected by our jury will also be made available as free downloads for anyone to print and share.
YOUR art has power. Art can heal, art can save lives, and art can bring us together even while we are apart. It can be a compass to guide us through this storm. This is your chance to make work that will be distributed worldwide and will inspire us all to stay strong, safe, and united.
These symbols will stand long after the virus is gone as a testament to our resilience. Please join us in this historic moment by submitting!
Open call ends May 8th.
La CASA (Center for Arts, Self-determination, and Activism) is a transformative $33 million initiative by Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) in Boston's South End.This four-story facility will consolidate IBA's diverse programs—including affordable housing, education, financial empowerment, and arts—under one roof, enhancing access and community outreach.Supported by a $20 million New Markets Tax Credits allocation and $12 million in tax-exempt bond financing led by TD Bank, La CASA exemplifies a strategic partnership aimed at fostering socio-economic mobility.Upon its anticipated completion in 2026, La CASA is projected to serve over 2,500 individuals annually through resident services and youth development, with an additional 5,000 benefiting from its arts programming, reinforcing its role as a beacon for Latino culture and community empowerment in Boston.
The Welman Project aims to support educators by making the reuse of materials a resource for creativity in the classroom, and to increase arts participation in underserved groups. They serve educators, artists, makers, and families through three main programs: the Educator Resource Program, the Curiosity Shop, and their Creative Reuse Education Program. They are dedicated to using the arts as a space for healing and confronting social injustice.
Art Against Racism is a virtual arts exhibition which aims to lift up the tremendous array of creative works made in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In doing so, project organizers hope that the exhibition will serve as an archive of the national artistic response to this historic moment.
La Raza Youth Leadership Institute hosted an art contest for youth ages 12-19 with the goal of motivating Latinx youth to get vaccinated. Three winners were chosen, and the first place winner's artwork was displayed on buses and in bus stop shelters near a number of schools. A phone number is included with the artwork for youth to call to receive more information about vaccines.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective's Perception Isn't Always Reality engages BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) teen and young adult artists to reevaluate messages they may have received about Covid-19 and vaccinations and to reevaluate the sources of the information. Through their own brand of urban storytelling that involves collaborative work in hip hop music and krump dance, spoken word, videography, photography, and podcasting, the artists will produce a challenging body of work for the public to experience on urban canvases such as the sides of city buses and on air waves.
Based in St. Louis, Missouri and incorporated in 2014, the Story Stitchers Artists Collective uses a collaborative model to create social justice art. The mission of Story Stitchers is to document St. Louis through art and word and to promote understanding, civic pride, intergenerational relationships, and literacy. Story Stitchers works to promote a better educated, more peaceful, and caring region through the creation and dissemination of original art.
