Visualizing the Past Exhibition (St James, NY) – Call For Artists
[Sponsored Listing] Smithtown Township Arts Council and Mills Pond Gallery invites artists to submit works for a juried exhibition, Visualizing The Past. The theme is poet Emily Dickinson’s phrase: “Memory is a strange Bell—Jubilee, and Knell.” The exhibition is open to multiple responses to the metaphor: a bell that summons the public to a joyous celebration or rings mournfully to signal loss.
Click here for the application / registration
Deadline: 30 Jun 2021
For Visualizing the Past, artists may explore the role of remembrance—from personal reflections to universal emotions—through abstract, representational, or mixed modalities. Visual evocations of past events, landscapes, people, scenes, objects, or structures can make intangible thoughts, emotions, and concepts visible to the mind’s eye. Images that preserve the past can retard decay and disappearance. Conversely, they could give form to the inevitable ravages of time.
Whether invoking the highs or lows of cultural memory, artists can suggest what remains after a physical presence, event, or emotion has vanished. The exhibition is open to varied interpretations of the subject, from literal or narrative-inspired to far-ranging or symbolic. Representational images of remembered sights, activities, impressions, or atmosphere as well as surrealistic or abstract evocations related to the subject are welcome. Expressions may range from positive images to more melancholy soundings.
Visualizing the Past Artist Benefits
Selected artists for Visualizing the Past will have the opportunity to exhibit in an historic gallery facility that has been in business for more than fifty years and listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The building was built in 1838 and has five gallery rooms, 11 foot ceilings, and lots of natural light. Artists will have the opportunity to have their art judged from national entries by art critic and cultural journalist, Carol Strickland for awards $1200 Best in Show, $800 Second Place, and $400 Third Place.
About Smithtown Township Arts Council
Incorporated in 1972, Smithtown Township Arts Council (STAC) offers a unique combination of historical preservation, cultural promotion, and arts exhibition. The Council has been committed to the arts in Suffolk County for forty-six years, working to provide a creative outlet and the opportunity to experience, investigate, and discover contemporary art and cultural issues which are engaging and relevant to the public’s daily lives and civic responsibilities. They believe the arts are indispensable in building good character in the citizens of the community as they foster communication, offer new insights on the world, and add to the greater appreciation of both life and society.
Since 1978, the Council has made its home in the historic Mills Pond House. Occupied by the prosperous Mills family (early settlers of the Town of Smithtown) until 1976, this area is a rare survival of an agricultural hamlet once common on Long Island. William Wickham Mills (a man of wealth and social prominence) inherited the family land and began to construct the Mills Pond House in 1838. This Greek Revival style home is the earliest documented architect-designed house in the area.
About Mills Pond Gallery
The Mills Pond Gallery strives to promote an active process of exploration involving creativity and the arts, providing inspiring and enjoyable opportunities for visitors to explore different points of view, challenge preconceptions and prejudices, and foster critical thinking. They hope that the public will relate the art exhibited to their own life experiences, creating new links and understanding. Dedicated to showcasing the artistic development and achievements of the region and nation, the gallery’s exhibitions provide diverse art experiences for individuals and reach the local communities through classes, special events, and community outreach programs. Focusing on active and collaborative learning through the medium of art, they bring arts and people together to discover, enjoy, and understand the nation’s rich and diverse artistic heritage.
For more information, contact gallery@stacarts.org.
