35th Annual Decatur Fine Arts Exhibition: “Forced Perspective”

Presented by the Decatur Arts Alliance
Decatur, Georgia
May 2 – June 14, 2024

The 35th annual Fine Arts Exhibition explores “Forced Perspective” as the 2024 theme.  When experiences challenge our worldview, when encounters lead to a reexamination of long-held beliefs, when we realize jarring truths or witness inescapable realities… artists and audiences are invited to consider how enduring discomfort affects how we relate to ourselves, each other, and the world. 

The Decatur Arts Festival draws approximately 50,000 people to downtown Decatur for a celebration of the arts that includes a juried Artists Market, Children’s Festival, New Dance, Literary Arts, Performing Arts Stage, and a Concert on the Square, as well as the Fine Arts Exhibition. This large audience represents a broad spectrum of knowledge and appreciation of the arts, and the Fine Arts Exhibition addresses this spectrum with a diversity of styles and media. Works selected for the show reflect a wide range of artists’ experiences and viewpoints, with excellence as a common thread.

EXHIBITION LOCATION

The exhibition will be installed in the newly renovated Fourth Floor Gallery of the Decatur Library, part of the DeKalb County Public Library.

The City of Decatur, DeKalb County, Georgia, is located just east of and adjacent to the city of Atlanta’s in-town communities and near the metro area suburbs. With more than 200 shops and restaurants in commercial districts around the Square and in historic Oakhurst Village, Decatur is a popular shopping, dining, entertainment, and arts destination. Twenty-four thousand residents live in Decatur’s quiet, tree-lined neighborhoods and downtown condominiums, and as the DeKalb County seat, this thriving commercial community is the epicenter of county business. www.Decaturga.com

RECEPTION
A closing reception is planned for Friday, June 14, 2024.

SALE OF ART
Sales are encouraged. The Decatur Arts Alliance handles all sales and collects a 25% commission on all artwork sold as a result of this exhibition. All artwork for sale must be priced by the artist and so stated in the entry. Please be sure to include the 25% commission for the Decatur Arts Alliance in your price. The 7% Georgia sales tax will be added at the point of sale. Sales from the Fine Art Exhibition have increased each year and works from the exhibition have been added to private, corporate, and non-profit collections.

AWARDS
Best of Show:  $1,000
Gold Award:  $700
Silver Award:  $500

Purchase awards totaling $2,500 are selected by the City of Decatur for inclusion in its public art collection. Local institutions and universities frequently purchase exhibiting artwork. Purchase awards will be publicly announced on the exhibition website.

Please note: 

Each institution has its own procurement procedures, so payment may take longer to process for institutional purchases. While the Decatur Arts Alliance works to ensure timely payment to artists, funds disbursements from outside institutions are not within the organization's control and may result in delays.

JURORS

Erin Dixon is an award-winning artist and senior lecturer of drawing, painting, and foundations at University of West Georgia in Carrollton, GA, where she has been teaching for fifteen years. Dixon exhibits across the Southeast, most recently at Spalding Nix Fine Art in Atlanta, GA in Meaning/ Making, MOCA GA in Gathered: Georgia Artists Selecting Georgia Artists and Georgia State Perimeter College in  I, We, and the Space Between in 2024, the Masur Museum of Art in LA in 2023, Artfields in Lake City, SC in 2022, LaGrange Museum of Art in LaGrange, GA in 2022, Drawing Discourse at UNC-Asheville in 2021 and 2019,  and her work has been published in a number of catalogs and held in private collections.

Jonathan Fisher has resided in Atlanta for almost 20 years, and is an Associate Professor of Art and Coordinator of Studio Foundations at Kennesaw State University. Originally from Hickory, NC, he holds a BFA in Art with a concentration in printmaking from The University of North Carolina at Asheville, and an MFA in Art with a concentration in printmaking from Ohio State University. His work has been shown nationally and internationally including Canada, Denmark, and South Korea. 

Shawn Vinson is an art world veteran with 30+ years of experience as a dealer, curator and gallerist. He opened Decatur's first contemporary art gallery on the Square in 1998 and was invited to join the Atlanta Gallery Association as a founding member. He currently runs Different Trains Gallery in the Old Depot District, which he co-founded in 2017. Shawn has served on the Board of Directors of the Decatur Arts Alliance for two decades. He was honored as a 2023 Decatur Hometown Hero for his contributions to the arts and culture.

ORGANIZERS
Decatur Arts Alliance (DAA) connects residents, businesses, tourists, and artists to increase arts access and engagement in the city of Decatur, GA. Founded in 1989, the nonprofit produces the annual Decatur Arts Festival, numerous city-wide public art programs, community art and music events, and in 2024, launches the “Creative Village” project at Legacy Park that offers affordable artist studios and community workshops for all ages and skill levels. The DAA provides a collaborative environment to coordinate the interests of artists, gallery owners, theater groups, dance groups and performance venues within the city, helping to make Decatur home to a strong arts community. The Decatur Arts Alliance is supported by membership and sponsorship, along with proceeds from the Decatur Arts Festival and the Decatur Wine Festival. To contact the Decatur Arts Alliance, call 404-371-9583, email admin@decaturartsalliance.org, or visit www.decaturartsalliance.org.

The Decatur Branch of the DeKalb County Public Library and the Georgia Center for the Book are located at 215 Sycamore Street, Decatur, Georgia 30030. For information, visit http://dekalblibrary.org/branches/deca, and http://dekalblibrary.org/, or call 404-370-3070.

Application Requirements

How to enter:

All entries are to be submitted digitally through www.callforentry.org (CaFÉ). Please retain a copy of the information you provide on the entry form. 

If you have not registered previously with CaFÉ, setting up your portfolio is free. Participants may submit three entries for one fee of $30. Each artwork, which may include three images, must be submitted on a separate entry form. After completing the entry information, a credit card number or PayPal account will be required to confirm the entry process for the first submission.

Please note: 

The first entry must be paid by credit card or PayPal. Second and third entries (optional) will use a coupon code in lieu of a fee, per instructions on the CaFÉ website.

Each entry will receive the jury’s decision in a separate email, via CaFÉ, no later than April 5, 2024. It is the artist’s responsibility to monitor their CaFÉ account where all submissions will be listed and marked either invited or not under “My CaFÉ Entries.”

It is the sole responsibility of the applicant to note each artwork's application number, as this identifier will be used to announce the accepted works. Please retain a copy of the information you provide on the entry form.

CaFÉ requires that all images conform to a specific format. Before you begin the entry process, review CaFÉ’s instructions and tutorials. For technical assistance with your entry, please see https://www.callforentry.org/cafehelp.phtml, or contact cafe@westaf.org. For questions about exhibition guidelines, please contact finearts@decaturartsalliance.org.

Entries will be active on the CaFÉ website beginning February 5, 2024, and must be completed by 11:59PM MST on March 15, 2024.

Submissions Must Include:

•      Contact information including mailing address, telephone number, email address, and website address (if applicable)

•      Title of each work submitted

•      Year artwork completed

•      Brief statement about the work. This may include descriptive material. Limited to 1000 characters.

•      Up to three images of each work submitted for jurying. If the work is a 2-D work, an overall view and at least one detail are recommended. If the work is a 3-D work, two alternate overall views and one detail are recommended. All submitted images must be formatted to the specifications outlined on the CaFÉ website.  (http://www.callforentry.org/image_prep.phtml). 

Note: By submitting images of your work, you give permission to the Decatur Arts Alliance to use the images for publicity in the organization’s websites, digital publications, press releases, Decatur Arts Festival publications (both print and electronic), and online catalog of the exhibition.

•      Image list numbered to correspond to the portfolio images submitted. Please include full photography credits as well as the title, dimensions, and description of each work.

•      Presentation/installation requirements for the work submitted. Any special fixtures required must be provided by the artist.

Notification of Acceptance:

Notification of the jury’s decision will be posted on CaFÉ no later than April 5, 2024, under “My CaFÉ Entries.” It is the artist’s responsibility to monitor their CaFÉ account where entries will be listed and marked as either invited or not invited.

Instructions for shipment and retrieval of artwork, as well as a consignment agreement, will be included in acceptance notifications sent via CaFÉ.

Delivery Details:

Shipped artwork must be received no later than Thursday, April 25, 2024.  

In-person drop-off (directly to the Fourth Floor Gallery) will occur exclusively on Friday, April 12, and Monday, April 15, 2024, between 11:00 AM and 5:30 PM. Please make sure your drop-off time is confirmed with gallery staff before arrival. If unavailable on those dates, artists must arrange alternate drop-off plans directly with the Decatur Library staff coordinating the Fine Arts Exhibition. Dropped-off artwork should arrive properly packed to protect the integrity of the artwork. Artwork not packed will be considered “as-is” and the gallery will not be responsible for the condition of the work.

Please Note:

All works must be delivered with all hardware/stands necessary for secure and stable display in the gallery space. In some cases, artists may be asked to personally install 3D works for display security.

Eligibility Criteria

Artists are invited to participate in a juried exhibition of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional works. Artwork will be chosen from submitted entries by a panel of three jurors on the basis of creative excellence and quality of execution.

• All works must be original and completed within the last five years.
• Artwork previously showcased in this exhibition is ineligible for inclusion again.
• The sponsors are the final authority on eligibility.
• Works to be hung must be ready for hanging with any necessary hardware in place.
• Two-dimensional artwork should be no larger than 4 ft. tall and 5.5 ft. wide. Three-dimensional work should be no taller than 6 ft. tall and 6.5 ft. wide. NO WORK should weigh more than 50 lbs.