Call Detail
Entry Deadline: 5/6/22
Application Closed

Entry Fee (Entry Fee): $30.00
Work Sample Requirements
Images | Minimum:Min. 0, Maximum:Max. 4
Video | Minimum:Min. 0, Maximum:Max. 4
Total Samples | Minimum:Min. 1, Maximum:Max. 4
Call Type: Exhibitions
Eligibility: Regional
State: Pennsylvania

Art of the State, open to Pennsylvania artists and craftspeople, is an annual juried exhibition held at The State Museum of Pennsylvania. With an established tradition of exhibiting highly creative art chosen by a distinguished panel of jurors, Art of the State provides an opportunity for both established and emerging Pennsylvania artists to exhibit their art and receive statewide recognition.   

 Presented by The State Museum of Pennsylvania in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, the 55th Art of the State exhibition will offer cash awards for selected entries in the categories of Painting, Work on Paper, Photography & Digital Media, Sculpture and Craft.   

The fee is $30 for up to 4 works of art.   

 FINAL DATE TO SUBMIT ENTRIES: Friday, May 6, 2022, 11:59 PM  

Assistance will be available by e-mail and phone from 8:30 AM until 4:00 PM Monday through Friday.  

The exhibition will be open from Sunday, September 11, 2022 until Sunday, January 15, 2023.  

   

CATEGORIES   

Craft: Functional or decorative three-dimensional craft in any synthetic or natural media.   

NOTE: Artists can only submit one image for each work. Artists with three-dimensional work may be asked to submit additional views.  

Painting: Two-dimensional painting media including oil, acrylic, watercolor, encaustic, fresco, ink & wash, pastel, gouache and spray paint, painted on a two-dimensional surface.    

Photography & Digital Media: Traditional and digital photographs, photographs printed on metal, and time-based media.   

NOTE: Artists are required to provide a media player, speakers, and screen for exhibition display purposes for digital works.  Media should be programmed to play on a continuous loop. The media player should be equipped to start automatically, and to start and play when and if power is lost and returns.    
 
Sculpture: Three-dimensional carved, molded, applied or constructed techniques using wood, glass, plaster, metal, stone, plastics, clay, soft or hard materials, found objects or natural materials. May include high and low bas relief, installations, kinetic sculpture and assemblage.   

NOTE: Artists can only submit one image for each work. Artists with three-dimensional work may be asked to submit additional views.  

Work on Paper: Two dimensional works specifically created on paper, includes drawing, collage, etching, lithograph, woodblock, screen print, serigraph, calligraphy, computer art on paper, graphic art, poster art, digital art print, digital collage, monotype, cut paper and pastel.    

   

 AWARDS   

A First Place Award of $500 and a Second Place Award of $300 and a Third Place Award of $200 will be distributed in each of five categories.   

AdditionalAwards  

William D. Davis Memorial Award for Drawing: $250   

The State Museum Art Docents’ Choice Award: $300  

   

TIMELINE   

Friday, February 18, 2022: Entry process open  

Friday, May 6, 2022: Last day for entry (no late entries accepted)  

Week of June 20, 2022: E-mail notifications of juror results  

July 14, 2022: Deadline to confirm information  

July 23-30, 2022:  Art delivery  

September 11, 2022: Exhibition opening  

January 15, 2023: Exhibition closing  

January 21-28, 2023: Art Retrieval 

 
JURORS   

Selection Jurors will review all art submitted. Those with the highest ratings will be featured in the exhibition. Selection jurors include:    

Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer 

Artist  

cuellarshaffer.com 

Colombian-American artist Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer graduated with a degree in Architectural Design from the Fundación Academia de Dibujo Profesional and studied Fine Arts at the Instituto Departamental de Bellas Artes in Cali, Colombia.  

Sheila’s practice represents her interest in identity, diversity, and human rights. Her work has been shown at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Susquehanna Museum of Art, Kniznick Gallery at Brandeis University, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, and The State Museum of Pennsylvania. Sheila has been invited to show her work at the Pennsylvania State Capitol and the United States Department of Energy. In 2018, her design Democracy is Power was chosen by the Amplifier Foundation curatorial team, which includes Shepard Fairey and America Ferrera, to travel around the country with #powertothepolls. In 2020, Sheila was awarded funds from the Heinz Endowments Just Arts program as Lead Artist of the recently completed Billboard Art Project. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Westmoreland Diversity Coalition and the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh and she has recently been appointed to Welcoming Westmoreland, a broad-based coalition taking on diversity and inclusion across Westmoreland County. Her work has been mentioned in publications including Forbes.com, Bloomberg CityLab and The Boston Globe. 

 

Michele Carlson   

Associate Professor of Printmaking 

Studio Arts | Corcoran School of the Arts & Design, Columbian College of Arts & Design  

The George Washington University 

https://www.michelecarlson.com/about  

Michele Carlson was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Seattle, Washington. She is a multidisciplinary practitioner working across the fields of art, writing, publishing, and collective practice. She is formally trained as a printmaker but works across many mediums and approaches. Her visual work has been exhibited nationally at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, Korean Cultural Center LA, Cerasoli Gallery LA, and Kearny Street Workshop. She has received residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Kala Art Institute, and Montalvo Center for the Arts. 

Carlson began building her multidisciplinary practice in her undergraduate studies at the University of Washington where she received degrees in Printmaking (BFA), Interdisciplinary Visual Arts (BA), and History (BA). Her making and writing practice was further developed at the California College of the Arts where she earned her graduate degrees in Printmaking (MFA) and Visual and Critical Studies (MA). Carlson’s critical writings on art and culture can be found in numerous publications including KQED, Art in AmericaHyphen, and Afterimage. She is currently working on a manuscript titled The Visits, which examines the way kinship and family are constructed set against the backdrop of incarceration and transnational adoption. This project has supported by the San Leandro Arts Commission individual artist grants, Kearny Street Workshop, and the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.  She currently lives and works in the Washington DC-area and is Associate Professor of Printmaking at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at the George Washington University. 

 

Roland Graf  

Associate Professor 

Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design 

University of Michigan 

https://stamps.umich.edu/people/roland-graf 

Roland Graf is an Austrian media artist, designer, and Associate Professor at the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design. He crosses many disciplines to design objects, intervene in public spaces, and develop novel interactive systems that reframe the body and interactivity in the built environment. Graf’s doctoral research focused on tracing a convergence of artistic and ludic (i.e., playful) engineering approaches at the intersection of interactive art and human-computer interaction.  

Since 1997, he has co-directed the artist collective Assocreation, best known for its award-winning interactive installations that often manipulate the ground the public walks on, such as the telematic sidewalk Bump (Prix Ars Electronica Distinction) or the street video game Solar Pink Pong (Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival). Graf’s eclectic individual and collaborative creative work is all rooted in the same interest in space, technology, and the future of human interaction. It has been shown internationally at art festivals, museums, galleries, design fairs, film festivals, conferences and computer expos, including the Bienal de Valencia, The Vienna Künstlerhaus, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, CENTRALE for contemporary art in Bruxelles, Milan Design Week, AVIFF Art Film Festival in Cannes, Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, CeBIT in Hannover, TEI in Stanford, as well as in the streets of New York, Detroit, Sao Paulo, Istanbul, Mumbai, Hong Kong, and Kathmandu. 

 

 An awards juror will select recipients in each of the categories.  

 

Cynthia Haveson Veloric, PhD 

Art Historian, Curator, Lecturer, Environmental Advocate 

 Cynthia Haveson Veloric is an art historian, writer, lecturer, and environmentalist. She has worked in the curatorial departments of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She recently combined her passion for art and environmental advocacy by pursuing a PhD focused on international contemporary artists’ responses to climate change. Her dissertation is titled “Prolonged Looking and Sensing: how ecoartists are shifting consciousness around the climate crisis.” In 2018 she curated the exhibition Repairing Our Earth, Diane Burko Artist/Environmental Activist and this fall she will curate the exhibition Risky Beauty: Aesthetics and Climate Change at the Main Line Art Center in Haverford, PA.

Last year Veloric chaired the session “From Wheatfields to Ecosophy: A consideration of women artists in the history of climate change” at the College Art Association conference. At this year’s conference, she is presenting on the Pollution Pods of Michael Pinsky, an architectural installation which has been shown at international climate conferences. She has published on Saint Gaudens’ sculpture Diana, the painters Barkley Hendricks and Martin Johnson Heade, historical and contemporary Philadelphia women artists, and environmental photography. Her recent public service includes the Art Committee for the upcoming Pennsylvania Climate Convergence in Harrisburg, the Clean Air Council in Philadelphia, the Advisory Board of the Brodsky Center for Printmaking and Papermaking at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Board of the Main Line Art Center.

  
ABOUT US     

The State Museum of Pennsylvania is adjacent to Pennsylvania’s State Capitol building in Harrisburg. It offers exhibits and vast collections interpreting the state’s heritage, art, and natural history. The State Museum is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), the Commonwealth's official history agency.    

The Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation (PHF) supports the work of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission who collects, preserves researches, and interprets the treasures of Pennsylvania. Through private contributions, PHF helps PHMC protect and provide access to PHMC's 23 historic sites and museums, approximately 5 million objects, and 237 million archival items. Pennsylvania’s valued heritage is sustained through PHF.   

   

CONTACT    

Amy S. Hammond, Curator | Art of the State Project Director   
The State Museum of Pennsylvania    
300 North Street, Harrisburg, PA 17120    
Phone: 717-772-2840 Email:   ra-phartofthestate@pa.gov  

Application Requirements

Artists must submit an artist statement and resume. 

Eligibility Criteria

 COMPETITION RULES   

Eligibility    

1. Artists must be current residents of Pennsylvania and 18+ years of age.   

a. Work must have been created within the past (3) years (March 2019-March 2022).   

b. Size is limited to 12 feet x 12 feet, 150 lbs. in all categories.  

c. The work must be of the Participant’s own original concept and execution. The work must be legally compliant with intellectual property law. If, for instance, the work contains copyrighted material, the work must be a fair use of the copyrighted material. If the work contains the copyrighted materials of others, the Participant must secure all permission prior to submission and furnish them upon request.    

d. All work must be freestanding and/or ready to hang. The reverse side of two-dimensional paintings, photographs and works on paper must have a wire or D-rings for hanging.    

e. All entry applications must be uploaded to Competition website.   

f. All entry applications must include an insurance value of each work submitted. If the work could be for sale, the artist may submit a purchase price for each work. No insurance value may exceed the sale price.    

2. The State Museum reserves the right to reject any work from the competition or withdraw any award distinction.    

3. No substitutions are permitted.    

4. A panel of three selection jurors representing various media will assign numeric scores through the online entry site. The art with the highest scores will be included in the exhibition. An awards juror will review the work and make the award selections.    

5. All artists will be notified by e-mail of the judging results. Details for delivering or shipping of those works selected to be shown at The State Museum will be included in the notice. The artist may be responsible for installation of art if special conditions exist. The State Museum encourages the sale of exhibited work and does not take any commission. The museum collects information from interested buyers and connects the potential buyer to the artist.  Payment must be arranged between artist and buyer.  Art will not be available for pick up until the exhibition closes.   

6. Awards are selected by the Awards Juror after accepted art has been installed at The State Museum. Award recipients will be contacted prior to the awards ceremony and are asked to refrain from making their own announcements prior to the reception.   

7. Awards:  A first prize of $500 and second prize of $300, and a third prize of $200 will be awarded in each of the five categories (Painting, Sculpture, Craft, Works on Paper and Photography/Digital Media). The William D. Davis Memorial Award for Drawing in the amount of $250 and the Art Docents’ Choice Award of $300 may be presented. The State Museum may select a Purchase Award by choosing a work for its permanent collection.  Due to COVID-19 pandemic limitations on building capacity, The State Museum cannot guarantee that we will have an in-person, on-site opening ceremony and reception.  

8. Refunds will not be issued after the close of the submission process.