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Side Arts provides public relations services for a range of call for artists providers and businesses. The most common clients include art organizations, galleries, event promoters, private businesses, local governments, educational institutes, and museums.

Call For Artists Providers

In order of frequency, these are the types of organizations which provide opportunities for visual artists:

1. Brick and mortar galleries – Offer 4-10 exhibition opportunities per year. These themed calls can have topics such as colors, shapes, social issues, medium, and styles. The benefit of showing with a gallery is being able to take advantage of their relationships with collectors.
2. Non-profit art organizations – Offer 2-3 exhibition or competitions per year. The non-profits are typically local arts councils and focused on a specific medium, such as wood, ceramics, or fabric. Exhibition themes revolve around local history, public figures, and community affairs.
3. Online galleries – Private websites offering online only competitions. No mailing of artwork is necessary.Often pay-to-participate and offer small cash awards.
4. Event promoters – Manage annual art fairs. These pay-to-participate vendor events usually include the opportunity for juried prizes. Participation to be juried often costs extra.
5. Residencies – Destinations for inspired art making which may include travel expenses, room and board, studio space, and guided support and experiences. Residencies may be juried or paid. 1) Juried: There are no costs except application fees. 2) Paid: The participant assumes all costs. These provide different levels of services on a fee-based and availability basis.
6. Government institutions – Opportunities provided by city government or state arts commissions. These occur irregularly and are dependent on funding. Funding may come from the city, state, federal, or percent-for-art (one-half of one percent of construction cost for art projects) programs. These are requests for proposals for public works – murals, sculptures, traffic box wraps, storm drain painting, bus stop installations, bicycle rack artwork, public bench artwork, and other short-term and permanent installations.
7. Publications – Magazines, both online and in print. Usually pay-to-participate and ongoing based on publication frequency.
8. Studio tours – Community events where artist studios are open to the public. Run by a local arts council or an independent non-profit organization. Pay-to-participate. Although traffic is not guaranteed, online and print promotion may be offered. The primary benefit is having a reason to clean up and organize the studio annually.

Writing A Call For Artists

Be deliberate and thoughtful whenever you are writing a call for artists. Make sure the artist benefits, fee structure, terms of commissions, timeline, and engagement process are clearly defined. Know your legal rights and be clear about the artist’s legal rights. Give quantitative and qualitative data to back up why an artist should participate.

Learn more at our top-performing guide: How To Write A Call For Artists