First Annual HOME Exhibition: Gimmie Shelter - Redefining and Reimagining the Place We Call 'Home'

Presented by the Decatur Arts Alliance
Decatur, Georgia
July 11 - August 16, 2025

Housing is a fundamental human right, the cornerstone of stability and opportunity. It's where families grow, dreams take root, and futures are built. But for many, the dream of a stable home in Decatur is slipping away.  A stark reality faces our community: housing costs are skyrocketing while wages struggle to keep pace.

The Decatur Arts Alliance and the Decatur Land Trust are partnering with the Georgia Center for the Book and the Decatur Library to present a powerful art show, “Gimme Shelter: Redefining and Reimagining the Place we call 'Home.'”  We invite professional and student artists of all mediums – painters, sculptors, photographers, mixed media artists, and more – to lend their creative voices to this important cause.

What does "home" mean to you? Is it a shelter, or a sanctuary? Is it a place on a map, or an internalized feeling of community? Does it feel further away as times and landscapes change, or is it suspended in time the farther you travel?

We ask artists to look beyond brick and mortar, beyond place and community, to let creativity illuminate the diverse ways we experience and define “Home."

The HOME Exhibition is a juried multimedia showcase presented in collaboration with the Decatur Land Trust. The exhibition will be shown in the Fourth Floor Gallery of the Decatur Library, home to the Georgia Center for the Book. Applications will be accepted on CaFÉ April 28 - June 8, 2025. The show will run July 11 - August 16, 2025, with an opening reception on Thursday, July 10 from 6:30-9pm
 

EXHIBITION LOCATION

The exhibition will be installed in the 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
An opening reception is planned for Thursday, July 10, 2025 from 6:30-9pm.

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
Student Award: $500

Occasionally, the City of Decatur and other local institutions select artwork to be purchased as part of their collections. All purchases and 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

Kristin Allin is a Principal Planner and Housing Specialist at the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) where she assists local cities and counties in planning, policy, and program development. In her current role, Kristin provides housing assistance and education and oversees the ARC’s housing tools and resources. Kristin is active in HouseATL as the co-chair of the Policy Working Group and also with the Women’s Affordable Housing Network as a member of the Communications Committee. Kristin has an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and a Master of Business Administration from Saint Mary’s College of California and a resident of Decatur.

Adam Crawford was raised in Avondale Estates, graduated BA from Georgia College. In April of 2019, Crawford established Cat Eye Creative, an artists' run studio and gallery space in downtown Atlanta. From fine art curation and consulting to large scale mural installations and artist residencies programs, Cat Eye Creative brings the art to the people. His belief is art is for everyone and without a community there is no art. He's here to make artists', designers', collectors', cities' and developers' dreams a reality.

Langston Leake, City of Decatur, is a native of Canton, Georgia, and is a Double-Dawg alumnus of the University of Georgia with BAs in History and Political Science and a Master of Public Administration. The first spark on Langston’s long path to local government was an interest in urban policy, gentrification, migration, and displacement. He is a strong advocate for the importance of community and believes that having housing affordable to all ends of the economic spectrum is the most effective and sustainable way to create diverse, sustainable communities.

Cynthia Lollis is a professor of art at the University of West Georgia. She collaborates and publishes work as ETC Press with German artist, Daniela Deeg. Their work can be found in museums, libraries, and private collections in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Their artists’ books are featured in publications, such as Masters: Book Arts: Major Works by Leading Artists, Booknesses: Artists’ Books from the Jack Ginsberg Collection, La Bibliothèque nationale du Luxembourg’s Multiple – Vielseitig, and the current issue of IMPACT Printmaking Journal (“ETC Press: Two Decades of Transatlantic Collaboration”). Lollis is an active member of her local arts communities, serving as a board member for Atlanta Printmakers Studio, and as an organizing committee member for The Book as Art, an annual juried exhibition co-presented by the Decatur Arts Alliance and the Georgia Center for the Book. Decatur has been her home for 13 years.

Adam Pinsley is a fine artist and designer from Decatur, Georgia. Pinsley celebrates contemporary experience and revels in popular imagery, as reflected in the vibrant and exuberant paintings he has created for celebrities, entertainers, professional athletes, private collectors and companies worldwide. He is passionate about helping others through creativity and believes that art plays a huge role in creating inclusive and connected communities.

Application Requirements

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. Professional artists may submit three entries for one fee of $20. 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.

STUDENT APPLICANTS

Students in grades 6 through postsecondary can apply for free using their student email and the coupon code Student at checkout.  More detailed instructions are provided in the application.

Notification of acceptance:

Each entry will receive the jury’s decision in an individual email, via CaFÉ, no later than June 17, 2025. 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

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 the work submitted for jurying. Only ONE artwork should be included per application. 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 June 17, 2025, 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 Monday, July 7, 2025.  

In-person drop-off (directly to the Fourth Floor Gallery) will occur exclusively on Tuesday, July 1, and Monday, July 7, 2025, 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 HOME 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.