CALL TO ARTISTS
“CLEAR DE ROAD: COUNTER ARCHIVES OF RESISTANCE”
EXHIBITION GUIDELINES AND PROSPECTUS
Eligibility: Open to all artists post-high school, with special consideration to artists that have roots or connections to the US Virgin Islands, and Caribbean. Collaborative submissions involving more than one artist are permitted.
Guidelines: Work must relate to the topic and address histories of freedom and resistance in the Virgin Islands. Artists of all disciplines may submit a work, a small body of work (3 total), or a project (such as an installation or performance proposal) in any media, including but not limited to:
- Digital photography, printed or projected
- Short Video works, animation (including music videos and short films)
- Sound pieces or live musical performances
- 2-D drawing/painting, mixed media, or collage
- Sculpture, installation, or artistic intervention
- Performance, movement-based, or experimental theater ○ We will also accept written works (poetry/essays), and archival projects
Submit the Following in a Single Document in PDF Format – 4 Page Maximum, 10 MB
- Artist Resume / CV – 2 Page Maximum
- Artist Bio – 150-300 Words Maximum
- Artist Statement – 250-500 words max
- Project Statement – 250-500 words max
- Please describe how this work responds to the theme.
- Slide List – Include:
- Submission Number
- Artwork Title, Year
- Medium
- Dimensions / Duration – For Large Audio or Video Files, You May Include a Direct Link for Online Streaming with Timestamps for Viewing Up to 00:05:00 Minutes Maximum for All Time-Based Submissions Total.
- Work description- installation requirements, equipment and technical specifications, support needs, and reasonable shipping costs (if relevant).
Name the PDF as such: Jane Doe_Clear de Road Application
Submit up to 3 Work Samples – 5 MB Maximum Per File
- Images: 300DPI JPG, PNG, or TIFF Format. No Links to Online Images Will Be Accepted.
- Audio: MP3, WAV Format – 00:05:00 Minutes Maximum for All Time-Based Submissions Total. Alternatively, You Can Include a Link to Your Audio Online in the Slide List.
- Video: MP4, MOV Format – 00:05:00 Minutes Maximum for All Time-Based Submissions Total. Alternatively, You Can Include a Link to Your Video Online in the Slide List.
- Name Each File as Follows: Submission Number, Artist Name, Title, Year, Medium, Dimensions, and Format Extension. Example: 01_Jane Doe_Heaven on Earth_2023_Sound_00:05:00 Minutes.MP3
Submission: Please email your completed application with required materials to: monica.marin@dpnr.vi.gov and place “Emancipation 175th Exhibition Submission” in the subject header. Large files should be sent via a file transfer system (such as Dropbox or Wetransfer), using the same email address for notification purposes.
Deadline for submissions: Monday, May 15, 2023, by Midnight AST email: monica.marin@dpnr.vi.gov
Jury Process: Selections from the submissions received will be made by the Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums territorial chief curator and DLAM director, in conjunction with the 175th Emancipation Commemoration evaluation team, consisting of Myron Jackson, Frandelle Gerard, Monique Clendenin, Khnuma Simmonds, and Akeem Macintosh. The jury consists of arts and culture experts, some of whom are trained artists from various disciplines spanning from visual arts, music, and dance/movement. The following selection criteria will be used:
- Aesthetic and technical quality
- Strong ideas and criticality related to themes
- Innovation and creativity both visually and conceptually
- Feasibility
- Use of historical research and source materials
The jury reserves the right not to accept or exhibit submissions or incomplete applications.
Artist Notifications: Up to fifteen artists/collaborations will be selected. Artists will be notified whether their entry has been accepted by Monday, May 22, 2023.
Artwork Delivery Deadline: Monday, June 19, 2023, 4 pm local time. Installation pieces are to be installed by the artists or their appointed representatives on a timeline to be communicated to them.
Delivery Address: Fort Frederik is located at 198 Strand Street, Frederiksted, St. Croix, USVI 00840
Notice of Documentation: Both video and photo documentation will be provided, as well as an illustrated exhibition catalog published that documents the exhibit with each artist’s work and the curatorial narrative among other selected texts. Media Release Forms with written consent are required for documenting the show for development, marketing and communications, and archival purposes.
Exhibition Install and Deinstall Requirements: All accepted works will be displayed with the curatorial text as part of the catalog as well as on the Emancipation website, with the artist’s name, bio, email, website, and a full description of their work.
Artists are responsible for organizing the production, delivery, shipping, and handling of the accepted submissions. Artists are also responsible for the collection of their entries at the end of the exhibition unless otherwise arranged. If and when possible, under some rare circumstances, equipment can be provided. Artists may opt to provide their own equipment if no other options are available. Please note that technical feasibility is part of the selection criteria, including equipment availability.
Artists are required to dismantle (where relevant) and collect their artworks and any equipment they own within two weeks after the closure of the exhibition, or by Saturday, October 21, 2023, 4 pm at the latest. The Fort Frederik Museum will not be responsible for any work or equipment left after that date.
Queries: For any queries about this project, including the availability of equipment, please email: monica.marin@dpnr.vi.gov and place “Emancipation 175th” in the subject header, or call the Fort Frederik at 1 (340) 722-2021 ext. 8222 to the attention of the DPNR’s Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums Territorial Chief Curator Monica Marin.
The curator proposes some of the following questions and themes that can possibly be explored among others:
- How did the 1733 uprising on St. John, in which enslaved Africans held the island for over six months influenced future revolutions in the Caribbean? What are the reverberations of 1848’s Emancipation? What are the long-lasting legacies of these events in shaping the spirit of resistance in Virgin Islanders, particularly in cultivating both self-determination and Black Consciousness?
- What would self-determination and liberation look like had Virgin Islanders been granted independence upon emancipation? How would life be different in the Virgin Islands if we were free from imperialism and present-day US colonial rule?
- What are the myths vs facts surrounding the personhood of some of VI’s freedom fighters such as Buddhoe, Queen Mary and the other Firebun Queens, Queen Coziah, and the many others left out of the story? How have VI Folk songs such as Carisos memorialized these heroes but also mythologized them? How has new research unveiled more humanistic accounts that move beyond the symbolic one-dimensional interpretations?
- Who are some of the lesser-known heroes and events in the history of resistance in the VI that have been left out of the story?
- How have archival criminal records been used to track down these histories of freedom? What are some of the untold histories of freedom such as Virgin Islanders purchasing their freedom by using their artistic skills and craftsmanship?
- How have Sunday Market Square and other examples of emancipatory efforts served as a space of resistance and cultural survival?
- How does the ongoing struggle for civil rights in the USVI manifest today? What is our new colonialism?
- How has the state apparatus utilized visual culture as a weapon for authority to control and subjugate throughout history? Specifically, how has power been manipulated through classification, separation, and aestheticization techniques? For example, plantation slavery’s racial hierarchies, the mapping of the islands by way of estate divisions, the segregation of people based on race and class in neighborhoods like “Free Gut” to even West End VS East End, to the discriminatory bias of the colonial archives, and the erection of statues of various colonial rulers. How have Virgin Islanders pushed back against these attempts?
- How has the struggle for Black liberation been silenced by Denmark and the US? How have Black voices and Black activism been censored by the media from David Hamilton Jackson’s organizing up until more recent times?
- How have oral histories, folk traditions, and storytelling served as a space of resistance to the oppressive conditions of slavery and colonialism? How do they serve as a source of cultural retention, invention, and knowledge to this day?
- Who are some of the Virgin Islanders who have played monumental roles in improving workers’ rights and human rights in the region and that have inspired Trans-Atlantic Black Liberation worldwide?