The Juried Visual Art Exhibition welcomes thousands of visitors over the course of ten days and SPACE gallery sees hundreds of visitors weekly. Often reviewed by esteemed art critics, artworks may be featured in Festival press coverage, as well as purchased by attendees for personal and corporate collections. Select JVAE Artists have also been recruited to exhibit in solo and group shows as part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s gallery system, as well as other gallery opportunities citywide. All accepted artists will be invited to the private preview of the exhibition on May 30th, 2024. Admission to the exhibition is free and open to the public. Please review eligibility, rules, and procedures before applying.

THEME

This year’s theme welcomes submissions that explore the profound and complex connections between humans and animals, be they companions, pets, wildlife, or creatures of myth or imagination. This exhibition will celebrate the diverse ways in which animals enrich our lives, challenge our perspectives, and inspire our creativity as they have done throughout history.

AWARDS

Best in Show – $2500 (as selected by all four jurors)

Juror's Choice – $500 (4 total awards - 1 from each juror)

Special Anonymous Award - $500 

People’s Choice – $500 (as voted on by the general public)

EXHIBITION DETAILS

The Juried Visual Art Exhibition will be displayed at SPACE Gallery 812 Liberty Avenue in the Cultural District during each day of the Festival, June 3 – 12, 2024, and will extend through August 11, 2024. The Exhibition will also be included in the Trust's Gallery Crawl on July 27, 2024. 

All accepted artworks must be delivered in person and picked up at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s gallery at 812 Liberty Avenue during the schedule outlined in the acceptance letter.

Shipments of artwork cannot be received directly by the Festival. Arrangements must be made by the artist to deliver the work to the gallery per the acceptance letter requirements and exhibition agreement. At the completion of the exhibition, arrangements must also be made for artists to pick up any unsold works within the timeline identified. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust assumes no responsibility for unclaimed works.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust does not provide a stipend for artists in the Juried Visual Arts Exhibition, although each selected artist is eligible for the awards detailed above. Works that are selected for exhibition may be offered for sale at the artist’s discretion. The Festival receives a 20% commission on all sales to support the exhibition. 

CANCELLATIONS

If your work is selected, a signed application, as well as agreement, is a commitment to show the selected piece(s) in the exhibition. Cancellations are discouraged. Notification must be received in writing to the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, 803 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222 before March 31, 2024. Works selected for display may not be removed until the Exhibition's conclusion. Failure to comply with the cancellation policy may result in denial from future Trust festivals.

2024 Jurors

Kimberly Diana Jacobs is a curator and arts professional with over ten years of experience in art galleries and museums. Her academic background covers art history, museum studies, modern and contemporary art by artists of African descent.

She is currently exhibition manager and assistant curator at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center. Prior to joining the AWAACC team, Kimberly served as interim director of Clark Atlanta University Art Museum and most recently as director and curator of the William R. Harvey Museum of Art at Talladega College. In addition to her leadership roles, Kimberly has contributed to panels, lectures, exhibitions, and performances at museums including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Saint Louis Art Museum, and Mississippi Museum of Art. In 2016 Kimberly was awarded the Catherine Hannah Behrend Fellowship by ArtTable at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and in 2013-14 she was the Romare Bearden Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Her exhibition projects include A Lesson in Black Excellence: Historically Black Colleges and Universities from Their Founding to the Future, which focused on HBCU art collections and archives, Terry Adkins: Renditions I-III at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in 2018, and All Things Being Equal, a group exhibition for the opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa in 2017. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, she is a graduate of Jackson State University with a bachelor’s in fine art and master’s in history and continued her postgraduate studies in art history and museum studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Anastasia James is the Director of Galleries and Public Art at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. She was formerly Deputy Director of Art & Education at the Bechtler Museum and founding Curator at the Lucas Museum of Art. Prior to this she held curatorial roles at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco and the Queens Museum, New York. James has curated and managed noteworthy exhibitions featuring a diverse range of emerging, established, and international artists for institutions and galleries and her work has been profiled widely in periodicals including, The New York Times, Art Forum, Art in America, ArtNews, Hyperallergic, Vogue, The New Yorker, and The Los Angeles Times. She holds a MA in Curatorial Studies from The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard).

Liz Park is Richard Armstrong Curator of Contemporary Art at Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh where she is currently working on reinstalling the museum’s collection. She was most recently Curator of Exhibitions at the University at Buffalo Art Galleries, State University of New York, and was Associate Curator of the 2018 Carnegie International. She was Whitney-Lauder Curatorial Fellow at ICA Philadelphia in 2013–15, and Helena Rubinstein Fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program in 2011–12. She received her BFA in visual art and MA in curatorial studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Aaron Levi Garvey Aaron Levi Garvey is a Jewish-American Curator/Historian working and lecturing in Modern and Contemporary Arts and Culture. Currently Garvey is the Chief Curator of the Andy Warhol Museum. Recent exhibitions include: The Hudson Eye a 10-day and 14-venue arts focused program in Hudson, New York, Arc of Life/Ark of Bones by Walter Hood and Migratory Roots by Kevin Brisco at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University, Flashing the Leather and The Drowned group exhibitions at Alabama Contemporary, Chiharu Shiota’s site-specific installation “Infinity Lines” at the SCAD Museum of Art, Sheida Soleimani “Oppress(er)(ed)” with Long Road Projects, “Ephemera Obscura” at the Contemporary Art Center of New Orleans and Manon Bellet's "MEMO" and Shikeith’s “notes towards becoming a spill” both at Atlanta Contemporary. Additionally Garvey curated "We Are What You Eat" the inaugural art exhibition at the United Nations headquarters in New York City in 2016 and co-curated the Atlanta Biennial (ATLBNL): Recent Correspondence at the Atlanta Contemporary in August 2016. During his role as the Janet L. Nolan director of curatorial affairs at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Garvey worked on numerous high level projects including the cultivation of institutional supporters on passion initiatives such as the Martin Moss Freeman ’77 Fund for Excellence endowment to support the acquisition of Jewish contemporary artists; rewriting and implementing a new collection management policy with a focus on up-to-date collecting practices, conservation and diversity, equity, inclusion and access; guiding the curatorial department’s deliverables for American Association of Museums re-accreditation; acquiring works by leading women, POC and LGBTQIA+ artists into the collection; conceptualizing and curating a serialized group of exhibitions by emerging and established contemporary artists entitled Radical Naturalism which investigates the museum’s permanent collection and the legacy of John James Audubon; and leading a cross departmental collaborative endeavor to commission and install public art within university department buildings and accession works into the collection. Garvey has worked with Creative Capital for the Visual Arts grant award review panels as both an Evaluator and Grant Reader in 2014 and 2018 and most recently has been a visiting curator and lecturer at the University of Florida, the Baker Museum–Artist Naples, Florida State University, The Assembly Room and a collaborating curator with Independent Curators International. Beyond his work within museums and universities; Garvey co-founded the Long Road Projects Foundation a non-profit residency program and edition-publishing house for both emerging and established artists to work on experimental projects, publish unique editions and community engagements.

Application Requirements

Only one application per artist is permitted. 

Each application should be for 1 piece of art. 

Artists may submit up to 5 images of the work, including wide angle and detail shots. Please note that the highest quality images will likely get the strongest consideration.

Any incomplete applications, or applications that do not follow the eligibility criteria, including living within the 150-mile radius, will not be considered.

The exhibition will be staged at the discretion of the JVAE Coordinator, and the Manager of Exhibition Logistics. The Trust reserves the right to refuse any work that differs from the work sample submitted as well as any inappropriate work or display.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's marketing team will provide all JVAE-related promotional materials for selected artists to share. Please ensure that all contact information is current and accurate.

Artists will receive notification of application status in March. Selected artists must sign and return the JVAE exhibition agreement by April 20, 2024. 

For any questions around eligibility, please contact tcoleman@trustarts.org.

Eligibility Criteria

Artists must reside within 150 miles of 812 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

Eligible counties include:

Allegheny County (home to the City of Pittsburgh)
Armstrong County
Beaver County
Bedford County
Blair County
Butler County
Cambria County
Centre County
Clarion County
Crawford County
Elk County
Erie County
Fayette County
Forest County
Greene County
Guernsey County
Indiana County
Jefferson County
Lawrence County
Mercer County
Somerset County
Venango County
Washington County
Westmoreland County.

WV
Brooke County
Hancock County
Harrison County
Marion County
Marshall County
Monongalia County
Ohio County
Pleasants County
Preston County
Taylor County
Tyler County
Wetzel County

OH
Ashtabula County
Belmont County
Columbiana County
Cuyahoga County
Geauga County
Jefferson County
Mahoning County
Monroe County
Noble County
Portage County
Stark County
Summit County
Trumball County
Tuscarawas County

 All work must be original, designed and created by the applicant(s).

All work must have some relation to the exhibition theme described above. 

All work must not have been previously exhibited in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

All work must have been completed within the past 2 years from the exhibition date of June 2024.

Video and sound components must be intended for display in a gallery setting. Documented performances (such as concerts, recitals, music performance, etc.) are ineligible. The video or sound art piece must be the original work of art.

All work must be ready to hang, exhibit or be installed during the scheduled hours of operations as determined by the Manager of Exhibition Logistics. Installation-based works must be installed by the artist and should take no longer than two 8-hour workdays to install.

All work must be available for display for the full duration of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, June 3 - 12, 2024.