The Baton Rouge Gallery announces a call for artists showcasing exceptional design and artistry through wearable art. Uncommon Thread is a national juried art event and competition. It is dedicated to being a unique platform for artists and designers to present their work and giving audiences a one-of-a-kind visual experience. Accepting submissions from all U.S. based artists. Uncommon Thread: Essomenia takes place Saturday, September 21, 2019.
Click here for the application / registration
Deadline: 1 Aug 2019
Contemporary art, in many ways, often has its eye on the future, even when exploring the present. With this in mind, Baton Rouge Gallery is proud to announce the theme for 2019’s Uncommon Thread is “Essomenia,” an 18th century term meaning “to show things as they will be in the future.”
Baton Rouge Gallery invites designers and artists to make the unimaginable tangible (and wearable) while setting their sights on the world that lies ahead. Whether inspired to look 20 years down the road or 200 years into the future, Uncommon Thread wants to know what you foresee. How might technology, the environment, the political climate, interpersonal relations, or other realities change or impact other changes? What might be commonplace for our great-grandchildren that most can’t even fathom today? Can your “essomenic” design simultaneously tell us something about our collective today and our tomorrow?
Juror
The Special Guest Juror for Uncommon Thread: Essomenia will be Grace DuVal. Based in Chicago, IL, Grace DuVal is a wearable artist, maker, and photographer. Her wearable art designs have been featured in exhibits both across the U.S. and internationally, most recently at World of WearableArt in Wellington, NZ (where her Mind the Synaptic Gap won the 2018 Dame Suzie Moncrieff Award; and a year earlier, DuVal’s work was named Supreme Award Runner-Up and received the Sustainability Award).
Uncommon Thread Artist Benefits
Artists/designers chosen as finalists will have their selected work(s) featured on the runway during the Uncommon Thread event (09/21/2019), when one standout piece will be named Best in Show and awarded a $1,000 cash prize.
Artists whose work is selected will be consulted on all aspects of presentation specific to their work. This includes model, hair, and makeup, ensuring their artistic vision is honored and respected as best possible.
Artists will also receive two free tickets to the event which will include complimentary drinks. They will have the opportunity to converse with guests about their work and studio practice.
Artist’s Equity
Baton Rouge Gallery is open to the public, in a public park, free of charge six days a week. Most other similar organizations in the area charge admission fees. Being open to all, regardless of socio-economic backgrounds or other demographics, allows them to serve the whole community. They feature the work of artists across ethnic and LGBTQ spectrums. This is true of the visual art displayed and of artistic programming which may or may not include visual art presentations.
Uncommon Thread will employ a blind jurying process in selecting the works to be showcased. The juror will not be aware of any demographic information for individual artists. This ensures that works selected are chosen solely on their artistic merits. This prevents any bias against any artists based on their race, ethnicity, gender, and disability.
About Baton Rouge Gallery
Baton Rouge Gallery – center for contemporary art – is one of the nation’s longest-standing artist cooperative organizations. Artist-centric and a part of contemporary art in Louisiana for more than 50 years, it welcomes more than 18,000 visitors annually and has exhibited the work of thousands of artists.
Located in BREC’s City Park since 1984, the gallery is surrounded by a beautiful park that includes a golf course and multiple lakes, making it a special backdrop for this program.
For more information, contact jandreasen@batonrougegallery.org.