The Chicago Art Open - Call for Entries . . .

The Chicago Art Open is the centerpiece of Chicago Artists’ Month, a citywide celebration of the visual arts held each October. The Chicago Artists’ Coalition (CAC), the Midwest’s premier arts service organization, founded the Chicago Art Open in 1998 as an opportunity for some emerging but mostly professional Chicagoland artists to display their artwork in a prominent setting.

Each year, a panel of three distinguished jurors considers all submissions and designates approximately 10% as “Curator’s Choice.” Approximately 300 works in all media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, mixed media, video, and installation art, are exhibited by student, emerging, and professional artists. All work is for sale, and many exhibiting artists are contacted by art collectors and professionals as a result of their involvement.

The Chicago Art Open is viewed by many in the Chicago art community, as well as thousands of art enthusiasts and visitors. In 2007, nearly 5,000 people attended the exhibition, which included a formal opening, seminars for artists and the general public, and tours for student groups.

This year we are working with art programs and colleges that are sponsoring nominated students to represent them at the Chicago Art Open. We are happy to have Columbia College, Loyola University, DePaul University, and a few others participate. If you work for a school with an art program and feel that your students and your school would benefit from engaging with the public and collectors, then please get in touch with us for more information. The deadline for school nominations is May 1.

Also new this year is an emerging category that we subsidize to encourage young and inexperienced artists to exhibit alonside professional artists. This category is limited to about 20 spots.

The 2008 Chicago Art Open will take place:
October 3 - 27, 2008

Jurors are:
Candida Alvarez, Associate Professor, Department of Painting and Drawing, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Catherine Edelman, Proprietor, Catherine Edelman Gallery
Kymberly N. Pinder, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Application Deadline: June 13, 2008

Click HERE to apply online now