Call Description

Crooked Tree Arts Center - Petoskey is accepting submissions for the juried art exhibition In Motion: Making Art Dance, juried by Peter Sparling, former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, painter and videographer. Submissions may relate to this theme broadly and in many ways. 

Juror’s Description

If, as J.F. Martel claims in his book, “Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice,” “Art invented humanity,” then I’d propose that movement invented art. The vitality of bodies in motion inspired artmaking from the earliest cave paintings to the most recent digital forays into CGI, AI and screendance. Martha Graham, one of the previous century’s most avid surveyors of human form and the stories that reside in what she referred to as the body’s “blood memory,” often told the story of her father, a doctor, admonishing her as a child: “Martha! Movement never lies.” So how do artists in the 21st century translate this vitality into painting, sculpture or film? How do they speak truths or create metaphors in their media such that the works do more than merely illustrate a dancing body; they perform their own authentic dance and emanate a vital presence?

In Motion: Making Art Dance seeks works that address these questions in terms of their own medium: 2-D, 3-D, or video. The exhibit will be part of a celebration by Crooked Tree Arts Center - Petoskey of the Martha Graham Dance Company’s 100th anniversary as America’s oldest active dance company. Occupying a gallery alongside a significant collection of photographs by the great American photographer of danced motion, Barbara Morgan, on loan from the Rochester Institute of Technology, the call invites both dancers who make art and artists who make their works dance to submit examples of their art.

Juror Bio

Peter Sparling is Rudolf Arnheim Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Dance and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus at University of Michigan. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and The Juilliard School, Sparling was a member of the José Limón Dance Company and principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company. He directed Michigan’s own Peter Sparling Dance Company from 1993-2008 and was recognized with the 1998 Governor’s Michigan Artist Award. He is a lecturer, published poet, and essayist. His dances for video have been selected for numerous international festivals, including the 2007 New York Dance on Camera Festival, the American Dance Festival Dance Film & Video Festival (2008, 2019), Lisbon’s InShadow Festival (2010, 2020), DANCE:FILMS Glasgow, and Ann Arbor Film Festival (2017, 2020). His videos have been screened at Ann Arbor Film Festival, Screen Dance International, The Poetic Phonotheque, Muestra Movimiento Audiovisual, and Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival at the Detroit Institute of Arts. He has recently choreographed for Crooked Tree School of Ballet, Berkshire Bach Society, Manchester Music Festival, Midwest RADFest, and Terpsichore Collective. He is participating as regisseur, lecturer and coach for Martha Graham Dance Company’s 100th anniversary in 2026. 

An avid painter, Sparling has had eight solo exhibits and had works featured in numerous group shows in galleries including 22 North Gallery/Ypsilanti, Buckham Gallery/Flint,  Ann Arbor Art Center, Adrian Center for the Arts, Crooked Tree Arts Center/Petoskey & Traverse City, Commongrounds/Traverse City, Sault Area Art Center, Office Space Gallery/Detroit, Gutman Gallery/Ann Arbor, CultureVerse/Ann Arbor, Kayrod Gallery/Detroit, Mighty Queer/Detroit, Cultural Center of Cape Cod, and Kerrytown Concert House. 

Juror Statement

As juror of the exhibit and former principal dancer with Martha Graham, video artist, and painter, I am eager to be “moved” by works that resonate with a unique sensibility for the body’s motion. I might call this show a survey of artists who understand kinesthetic empathy. Contemporary dance’s evolution has embraced all human-produced movement as valid sources for “dance,” and in this spirit of a democracy of bodies, I welcome the subtle, outrageous and/or dynamic…. and the oscillation between stillness and the body’s endless capacity to break into dance, whether as a spontaneous outburst or a carefully plotted choreography of focused intentions.

General Information

The exhibition will run from May 22-September 5, 2026, in the Gilbert Gallery, at the Crooked Tree Arts Center, in Petoskey, Michigan. 

Three cash prizes will be awarded: First Place award of $500, Second Place award of $300, and Third Place award of $200.

Applicant Calendar (2026)

• February 5 to March 30: Call and submission window are open
• March 30: Call and submission window close (midnight EST)
• March 31 - April 6: Jury window
• April 8: Notification of jury results sent (emailed)
• May 5 – May 9: Delivery of works
• May 9: Deadline for the arrival of works during posted gallery hours (or by special, prior, mutual arrangement)
• May 20-21: Awards selected
• May 21: Vernissage Preview/awards announced
• May 22 – Sept 5: Open to the public, Tuesday through Friday, 10 am-5 pm, Saturday 10 am-4 pm
• May 23: Public Reception
• Sept 5: Exhibition concludes
• Sept 8 – Sept 11: Pick up work from CTAC during posted gallery hours, (or by special, prior, mutual arrangement) and return shipping

Application Requirements

Must meet CaFE image format requirements.

• File Type: JPEG or JPG only.
• File Dimensions: 1,200 pixels or greater on the longest side.
• File Size: Under 5 MB.
• Color Profile: RGB

See this link for further guidance and information about video files: https://www.callforentry.org/artist-help-cafe/uploading-media/ . If you are submitting video works, please see the details regarding video in the submission procedure section. 

The Call is open to artists residing in the Great Lakes Region (Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario), who are at least 18 years old, are invited to submit up to 3 original works to In Motion: Making Art Dance, juried by Peter Sparling.

Submission Procedure:

• Submit up to 3 works in any visual medium, for jury. Video works must be under 3 minutes in duration. Submitting video via online link is preferable to submitting as files. For video link submissions, submit a still image representing each video, and include the online links to the videos (with matching titles) in your narrative statement.
• Include a narrative statement about how your work(s), and or practice relate to the theme In Motion: Making Art Dance. Include links to your video content in your statement. We prefer that you share links to your video works rather than upload the video media.
• Entries must be submitted online via CaFÉ, and file formats must meet CaFÉ specifications (see above). Complete the required entry forms, including title, medium,  size, (if video, include duration), and retail price of the work (or NFS) as well as a statement describing how your work fits the theme (and video links, if appropriate). Information about your works should be accurate. Titles, media, and retail prices of the works will not be updated in subsequent inventory forms. Labels for invited works are generated directly from your CaFé submission.
• Invited works can be shipped or hand delivered.  They must arrive within the delivery window, or special arrangements must be made, by April 22, with the Visual Arts Director. Upon arrival, works must be clearly labeled with the artist's name, artwork title, and medium; labels should be secured to the back of 2D work, or an appropriate place on 3D works. Digital works should have file names that match the original submissions. Video works should be shared via online transfer services, or usb flash drive delivered to CTAC. We would appreciate receiving invited video works in advance of the delivery window for physical works, ideally by May 1.
• Shipped work must include return shipping labels. CTAC does not pay for return shipping.  Artists are responsible for the transportation of works to and from Crooked Tree Arts Center, within the specified time frames.
• Please make sure that your email address is accurate, as all exhibit communication will be delivered via email.

Eligibility Criteria

Artists residing in the Great Lakes Region (Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario), who are at least 18 years old, are invited to submit up to 3 original works to In Motion: Making Art Dance, juried by Peter Sparling.