June 10, 2011
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History (WVDCH) is announcing a call for entries for its biennial West Virginia Juried Exhibition. The show will open with an awards ceremony and opening reception at 6:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 30, 2011, at the Stifel Fine Arts Center at Oglebay Institute in Wheeling, and remain on display through Jan. 2, 2012.
Eligible entries include works created in the past two years in the areas of painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, photography, mixed media and crafts. Entrants must be over the age of 18 and must be residents of, and maintain a permanent residence in West Virginia. Entrants also must have completed a WVDCH Artists’ Register form and submitted six slides or digital images representative of current work for the file at the Division. The images submitted for the Artists’ Register are not used in jurying entries into the exhibition.
Entries for the exhibit in the form of slides or digital images on CD will be accepted beginning Monday, June 13, and must be received by the Division no later than Monday, July 18. Artists may submit two entries for the exhibition with a limit of three slides/digital images per entry. Entry forms and properly identified slides/images must be accompanied by a non-refundable fee of $20. Slides/digital images can be mailed to WVDCH, West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2011, The Culture Center, 1900 Kanawha Blvd., E., Charleston, W.Va. 25305-0300, or can be hand-delivered to the Culture Center at the State Capitol Complex.It is the Division’s intention to present $33,000 in awards for the exhibition. The awards are made available through the West Virginia Commission on the Arts and the WVDCH through funds appropriated by the West Virginia Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts. Awards include three $5,000 Governor’s Awards (purchase awards), seven $2,000 Awards of Excellence (purchase awards) and eight $500 Merit Awards. Works receiving Purchase Awards become part of the West Virginia State Museum’s Permanent Collection of Art.
Within the extensive mission of the WVDCH is the element of arts promotion throughout West Virginia. To further this goal, the Commission on the Arts and the Division decided to have the exhibition travel to Wheeling this year, sharing the best in art with yet another community in West Virginia. In 2009, the exhibition was installed at the Huntington Museum of Art.
The biennial West Virginia Juried Exhibition showcases the work of state artists and craftspeople and provides the public with a comprehensive view of art and craft activities in the state. For more information about the West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2011, or to receive an exhibition prospectus and Artists’ Register form, contact Betty Gay, exhibits coordinator for the Division, at (304) 558-0220, ext. 128, or by email at betty.g.gay@wv.gov. The prospectus and entry forms are also available at the Division’s website at www.wvculture.org/museum/exhibits.html.
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