Discover Asheville's Unique Charms
"...Asheville is rich with layer upon layer of the most exquisite quality of life just waiting to be discovered ..."
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Discover the Bliss of the Asheville Area via its Art and Sculpture Competitions!
The Rosen Outdoor Sculpture
Competition & Exhibition
 "... is a national juried competition presented annually by the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on the campus of Appalachian State University,,, continues a long-held tradition of showcasing the best of large-scale, contemporary American sculpture. Each year, ten sculptures are selected for exhibition, and are situated in outdoor, public settings across campus.,,,. Since its establishment in 1987, The Rosen has become an integral part of An Appalachian Summer Festival, the university's annual multi-arts celebration, with the announcement of the Rosen Award winner coming during the festival's annual Sculpture Walk with that year's juror...."
Call for Entries
Artists working in the book form may submit up to two pieces for exhibit. Entry fee s $10 per piece. Artwork received after September 19 will be displayed at the discretion of the curator...."
Recycled Art Call for Entry
Lark Books issues Call for Entry for Recycled Art made from plastic.
Asheville's Lark Books is developing new book: “Fantastic Plastic.” featuring art made from recycled plastic. Written by David and Robin Edgar, the book will be published in the fall of 2009. Artists working in recycled plastics materials are invited to submit images of their work for consideration for inclusion in the book's gallery. Deadline for submisions is July 7, 2008. Write beth@larkbooks.com for an entry form. Also, keep checking the Lark Books Artist's Submissions page for news of other '500 series' books which are inviting artist's submissions.
Annual Competitions
Annual Grove Park Inn
Decorated Birdhouse Competition
Try your hand at a competition that’s for the birds. Let your creativity soar as you try your hand at our 9th Annual Decorated Birdhouse Competition.... Winners will receive cash and prizes valued at over $3,000..... All entries in the competition will be on display during the Sunset Mountain Spring Celebration at The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa... Contestants also have the option in this year's contest to donate their birdhouse to benefit Habitat for Humanity.... For more information, please contact the Special Events Department at (800) 438-0050 or 828-252-2711, ext. 2012..." Display takes place every year during Grove Park Inn's Sunset Mountain Spring Celebration in April and Early May.
Guidelines for Submitting
Your Art to Local Galleries
Below are the PUBLISHED guidelines which we have been able to unearth. One important guideline to consider before submitting your art to any gallery is to check out the gallery first, either online or in person, to be sure that the type of art you have matches the type of art displayed by the gallery, both in terms of genre and professionalism.
16 Patton Fine Art Gallery
"...features original work by regional artists presented in an intimate gallery setting. We specialize in fine art for residential and private collectors, including paintings, sculpture, glass, ceramics, and more...." Artist Submission Guidelines
Blue Spiral 1: Submission Guidelines
"... Blue Spiral 1 exhibits fine art and craft by professional artists residing in the Southeast. We welcome submissions from trained artists with credentials...."
Explore the Bliss of Land Art and Outdoor Sculpture |
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In the mid to late 1960s artists on both sides of the Atlantic went out into the landscape to make a new type of art. They created an important global movement—land art—that includes elements of minimalism, photography, performance, sculpture, and conceptual art.
Land Art is the first comprehensive overview of the many international manifestations of this type of art, and the philosophical, geographical, and cultural contexts from which it arose. The large-scale works of Robert Smithson, the often delicate and ephemeral structures arranged by Andy Goldsworthy, and the inspired creations of Michael Heizer and Walter De Maria are examined..." |
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Through vivid photographs... surveys the vitality of today's highly diverse field of outdoor sculpture.
--Highlights the work of nearly forty international sculpturs representing a cross-section of styles
--Features art from the figurative/representational to the abstract to site-specific installation
--Shows a wide range of media-bronze, steel, iron, aluminum, stone, concrete, glass, wood, and more
--Presents sculptures in museums, public spaces, sculpture parks, and private venues
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"...ll the major land artists of the past 30 years, such as Robert
Smithson, Christo, Robert Morris, Walter de Maria, David Nash, Richard
Long, Alice Aycock, Mary Miss, Nancy Holt and Carl Andre. A study of
tunnels, walks, stones, pools, furrows, ladders, cones, stars, hills,
water and steam. For Mircea Eliade, sacred acts create a ëmythic centreí. As art is a sacred act, the creation of an artwork can be seen as the creation of a sacred place or mythic centre. The piece of land art (the boulder, hole, pillar, stone circle) is an obvious form of a mythic centre....." |
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The earth as canvas In the mid-60s, artists in the USA and Europe began planning works for sites outside the narrow boundaries of galleries and museums. It began with ephemeral enhancements or traces left in deserted landscapes, in the deserts of America, or in the moors of Scotland. Following this were spectacular earthen sculptures of gigantic proportions, some of which are still in the process of completion today.... . Sculpture can now be an earthwork excavation, a field of metal poles, a buried hut, a trace in the grass, or even a book. |
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"... if you're interested in the work of some of the world's most renowned and inventive "land artists"--professionals who create art for, and out of, public and private exteriors--you'll be delighted with this collection of essays on and interviews with 11 landscape artists and architects.
Their work, which forcefully subverts the line between what we think of as conventional landscape design and outdoor installation art, is abundantly represented here in sketches and photographs...." |
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Hutchinson's works are ephemeral and evanescent, produced out in the open, where they are subject to the whims of nature. Much of it is the product of his "thrown rope" methodliterally throwing ropes over an expanse of land, then placing lime or planting flowers along the lines deter-mined by the ropes. The result is a snakelike garden or swerving lines of bleached land. Hutchinson has even thrown ropes underwater, planting flowers at the bottom of a lake or stringing oranges or onions beneath the water's surface. |
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The full story of the rapid coalescence and far-reaching influence of earthworks-- defined by art historian and critic Boettger as "sculptors' direct manipulation of soil and terrain," and taking the form of massive yet usually subtle and always provocative outdoor sculptures--is fascinating, significant, and untold until now. |
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"... Art Nature Dialogues is not only informative, but it presents the scuptors and artists ideas, points of view without the usual critical control or monologue.
Included are David Nash, Nils-Udo, Hamish Fulton, Patrick Dougherty, Bruni Babarit, Bill Vazan, Alan Sonfist, Betty Beaumont, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Peter von Tiesenhausen and herman de vries...
It is about time a writer focusssed on earth sensitive artists instead of the old generation of minimalist earth movers like Smithson, Heizer who destroyed the earth for art...." |
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"... striking volume on six important contemporary artists who work in the landscape and make use of the materials and processes of nature. While the artists showcased—herman de vries, Chris Drury, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Nikolaus Lang, Richard Long, and Giuseppe Pennone—... united by their empathy for the natural world and their decision to work outside the urban contexts of much modernist art. Profiles of each artist... accompany high-quality color reproductions of significant and beautiful works. |
Click on each of the dozens of categories to the left to uncover what makes the Asheville area so vital, so intriguing and so, well, UTTERLY BLISSFUL!
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Web-Based Art Competitions
Red Bubble Writing,
Photography
and Art Contest
"... US $10,000 prizes and the opportunity to be published. Inviting entries for the RedBubble publication — “Gaia – The Living Planet”. $2,000 for best image and written work and over $6000 in other prizes plus the opportunity to be published....RedBubble is an online art gallery that makes it easy to sell your art, photos, designs and illustrations as high-quality framed prints, mounted prints, greeting cards, posters, designer T-Shirts and more. Getting started is easy – sign up for free then upload your artwork...."
SlowArt sponsors competitions for Limner Gallery exhibitions and for the annual edition of Direct Art Magazine.
There is a nominal entry fee, winners are not charged any additional publication or exhibition fees.
Direct Art Magazine
 "...an annual bookazine publication, released in the Fall of each year. It is distributed by COMAG Marketing Group, the same distributors of Art News and Art in America. It is found in many of the same stores as these publications, including Barnes and Noble and Borders Books and Music. Additional copies are distributed directly by SlowArt to New York City galleries, Museums and specialty book stores
".... Direct Art is open and accessible to new artists. Artists are sought out on a continuing basis through ongoing international calls for entries. From these entries artists are selected purely on the merits of their work. In this manner Direct Art remains accessible and maintains a high standard of quality in the work represented. Artists are presented in the magazine in a few different formats. Some artists are selected for full sized articles about their work. These articles may be analytical or biographical and range from five to six pages. Artists featured in articles are also used to illustrate the front and back covers of the magazine. Other artists are represented in smaller three to four page mini-articles. Many artists are selected for image display pages. These pages are not formatted as articles, but simply with images of artwork and contact information. These display pages can be in the form of a double page spread, a single page, or a half page.
"All artists in the magazine have the option of listing their personal contact information, web site, and email for purposes of business contact and sales. There is no cost to artists selected to appear in Direct Art through the call for entries. In each issue from 30 to 40 artists are selected to appear on this basis. There is no commercial advertising in the publication, however, we do reserve a few pages in each issue for artist advertising. Artists who are not accepted to the magazine through the call for entries, may be given the option of purchasing advertising pages. These advertising pages are not open to the public but only offered to artists who respond to the call for entries and are reviewed..."
The Gallery Scene
Explains the difference between the different types of galleries and how they work, including which are legitimate and which are apt to be scams. |
Nationwide Open Call for Entries Open to Asheville Area Artists
 Cambridge Cooperative
Art to Wear Competition
".... Cambridge Artists' Cooperative’s Art to Wear exhibit has been a delight since 1990. Our 17th annual show featured clothing by acclaimed American textile artists, fashion designers, dazzling handcrafted jewelry and gorgeous one-of-a-kind accessories..." Located on Harvard Square in Cambridge MA
Atlanta Fine Arts League
$1000+ prizes. Deadline June 1st. Fee: $30. All 2-dimensional fine art. No photography or sculpture.
Go Green Installation at the
Main Street Gallery in Groton NY
"...Artists and general public worldwide can participate by sending in handwritten or typed words in any language about the environment. The paper can be either rolled, folded, scrap, colored or uneven preferably recycled and no larger than 8.5" x 11" ((22 cm x 28 cm). Drawings or photographs can be part of the work. No painting will be accepted...." $10 fee. Deadline May 2.
National Small Art Quilts Works Exhibition at the Main Street Gallery in Groton NY
"... Work may not be larger than 16 inches by 20 inches in dimension. All artwork must be for sale. Gallery commission is 40% of retail price. Entry fee is $30 for up to three pieces..."
Palm Beach Community College National Photography/Digital Imagery Competition
$1750 in prizes. Deadline May 1st.
Discover the Bliss of Architecture through Competition |
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The design for the Grand Museum of Egypt was reached as a result of an international architectural competition initiated by the Ministry of Culture on January 7th, 2002. The competition was under the patronage of the UNESCO and supervised by the UIA. It was an open invitation to architects and consultants from around the world to engage in a challenging act of creative design that stipulated a unique architecture for the long anticipated Grand Museum of Egypt. The museum complex furnishes all its visitors with a uniquely enjoyable, educational, and cultural experience. |
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"... presents a detailed selection of entries presented during its 1st Advanced Architecture Contest: Self-Sufficient Housing. Created for students and professionals to inspire changes in how new buildings are designed and constructed, the Self-Sufficient competition challenged participants to design a self-sufficient and ecologically oriented dwelling...." |
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Design competitions are a core mechanism of the architectural world. They offer architects unique opportunities to pitch for work, and the careers of many name architects have been made by winning an important competition - Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano, Dominique Perrault and Jean Nouvel to name but a few.
This is the definitive book on architecture competitions from over the last decade, and will be an essential guide to any architect or student who is considering preparing a submission. |
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Too often, design competitions and signature architecture result in costly eyesores that do not work. How can sponsors and clients get more meaningful results? To answer this question, Dr. Nasar, supported by riveting studies of competitions and Peter Eisenman's competition-winning design for the Wexner Center at the Ohio State University, suggests the use of pre-jury evaluation (PJE)...."
"... The best book I've read on design competitions. In fact, the best book I've read about architecture. A must read for anyone interested in the field..." |
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Cheap and Tasteful Dwellings: Design Competitions and the Convenient Interior |
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