Now that you have recovered from the holidays, its back on the horse! Below is a list of opportunities I think are good for your health (and your career)...

4Culture is seeking to acquire wall-hung works that use color (prints, photographs, drawings, paintings, tapestries, etc.) for the King County Public Art Collection. These works will be on display throughout the public spaces of King County's new office building, located in downtown Seattle. Artists who would like their work considered for purchase must submit images of existing available artwork for the panel's review. This project is open to all professional artists residing in the U.S.
Deadline: Feb. 2
For for information, click here.

Graffiti Artist needed for two-day workshop and lecture on our small rural campus in northern Minnesota. As part of a month long exhibition of graffiti based art at RRCC, the selected artist will present a one-hour long lecture on a Thursday evening and a one day workshop/demo on Friday. The planned dates for these events are April 18 and 19, 2007. A mural painted on Masonite panel will be permanently installed at RRCC with recognition given to the artist. Selected artists will be compensated a $300 travel stipend. The college will pay for room and board during the workshop, and provide all materials.
Interested candidates can send a resume, and digital images of their work to hmcdaniel@rrcc.mnscu.edu or to:
Rainy River Community College
ATTN: Harley McDaniel
1501 HWY 71
International Falls, MN 56649
Deadline: Feb. 16

The concept of this one is great. If anyone does this residency, please report back. I would love to hear someone's firsthand experience.
Elsewhere, a living installation and art production space in downtown Greensboro, NC, is seeking artists-in-residence for its Spring, Summer, and Fall 2007 residency season. Set within a former thrift store housing a 58-year inventory of American surplus, thrift, and antiques, Elsewhere invites artists-in-residence to utilize the immense collection of objects to pursue site-specific material, conceptual, and/or technologically-based projects. Elsewhere's building--two full stores on the ground level, a 14-room boarding house on the second, and warehouse on the third--provides dynamic architectures for the creation and installation of works. Artists live and work within changing installations, engaging interactive environments for re-conceptualizing the theory and practice of art-making.
For more information, click here.

jen bekman is now accepting entries for the Winter Edition of Hey, Hot Shot!, the well-known and highly regarded quarterly photo competition.
Hey, Hot Shot! debuts ten new talented photographers to the public four times a year with dedicated shows at jen bekman. In January of each year, the annual Hey, Hot Shot! ne plus ultra exhibition features four photographers selected from the previous year's finalists. The photographers featured in the annual show are represented by jen bekman in the year to come and are considered for a solo exhibition with the gallery.
The 2007 Hey, Hot Shot! Panel includes Joerg Colberg, founder and editor of the contemporary photography blog Conscientious, Lesley Martin, Executive Editor of Aperture Books, Amit Gupta founder of Photojojo, Stephen Frailey, School of Visual Arts Photography Department Chair, Eileen Gittins, founder and CEO of Blurb Inc, Jenni Holder, former director of Edwynn Houk gallery, jen bekman photographer Christine Collins, the Ultras from previous Hey, Hot Shot! years, and of course, Jen Bekman herself.
Deadline: Feb. 6
Entries accepted online ONLY. To apply, click here.

I am not necessarily endorsing the venue on this one, but if you want to pay some money for an interesting curator to see your work, here's your chance.
Viridian Artists, Inc. announces a call to artists for the 18th Annual Juried Competition. The exhibit takes place
July 9 - 27, 2007 in New York, NY. Awards: Cash Prizes, Group Exhibition, Continuous Slide Screening for Runners-Up. Open to U.S. artists working in 2D & 3D media. Juror: Charlotta Kotik, Curator of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum, NYC.
For prospectus send SASE to:
Viridian Artists @ Chelsea, 530 W. 25th Street, New York, NY 10001.
$25/3 entries, $5 each additional.
Deadline: April 13
For more information, click here.

Good luck!

What do others think about about submitting work to venues that require a submission fee? As a rule, I don't. It seems to me that most of these things aren't going to be any career help even if you are selected. There are a few such things I might apply to (such as Portland Modern)... but in general there are enough interesting opportunities that it doesn't make sense to pay.

I had looked at "Hey Hot Shot!" earlier and it seemed more legit/prestigious than most of the competitions, but I still don't like the $60 "handling" fee. If an organization is truly interested in showing interesting visual artwork, they shouldn't make the submission process a fundraiser.

SimEnzo brings up a good point. In fact
I'll go one further...Applying to most
any committee/jury/competition with it's
slide/statement/resume bullshit requirements is not much better than replying to some lame job opening or a singles ad. I've never heard of a "visionary committee". It's a paradox.
an oxymoron. A committee/jury/panel
by nature is an entity that compromises.

Save your time and money fellow artists, and spend time making better art, rather than trying to get the attention of MFA bureaucrats. Leave the panhandling to the ones who really need it.

Thank you for allowing me to respond.
Take care.

At the risk of biting a hand that's typing an agreement with me, I think you go a bit further than is useful, Sean.

A lot of very good opportunities require slides/statement/resumes... A couple that I recently applied to are the Art Omi Residency (www.artomi.org) and the Sculpture Center's In-Practice show (www.sculpture-center.org). It would be nice if one could focus on nothing but art-making, but realistically an artist has to regularly step out of studio and try to get that art out into the world where it can be seen.

I'm not really sure what you mean by "MFA Bureaucrat", but I'm inferring it represents a disapproval of MFA programs. I think that MFA programs generally do make artists better. Note--that isn't to say that MFA grads are somehow superior to artists without MFA degrees, just that someone coming out of a graduate program is almost always better than they were going in. Graduate school gives its students the luxury of working on art full-time for 2-3 years and receiving regular critical feedback.

Nothing is pleasurable about juried exhibitions. I just submitted for Rake's "All Day Snacking" show, and it an attempt to be a pompous ass, I just submitted a single work from a large series. I never worry about putting too much energy into juried shows, because I think the real power to create amazing shows lies in a single curator. Anything done by committee seems stale. But that doesn't mean I don't want to be included in the show. :)

With the sheer numbers of artists making work across the globe, and the limited number who receive publicity in any form -- be in print or web or otherwise -- a juried exhibition provides an opportunity for any juror to see a broad range of work in a short span. I hate to make the comparison, but in some ways it becomes an art expo of sorts. From each of the past two juried exhibitions at Contemporary Crafts, several artists who submitted work were contacted by one or more of the jurors for future projects. Additionally, other colleagues from around the country have contacted me to receive further information about artists whose work was in our juried exhibitions.

Fees, in our case -- and many others -- covers administrative costs involved in mounting an exhibition. This is not about fundraising -- these fees do not not cover the full expenses involved in the planning and execution of such projects.

As with submisions, artists need to do their homework to be sure the time invested is appropriate. Juried exhibitions should not be thrown out with the proverbial bathwater. They serve one of many important purposes in a complex system, and can lead to future projects in many situations.

That said, of course it is frustrating to invest time and energy with the possibility of not being accepted. No one likes rejection -- particularly when you've paid for the experience.

I agree with Namita: fees are a necessary evil. In most cases, no one is getting paid but there are still costs to cover. When you first dive in to ongoing carousel of 'submitting' (sort of an evil word in itself) you can be overwhelmed by all the fees. So don't try for everything... be choosey. Everytime New American Paintings comes around for the west coast, I wince a bit. Another go, another 25 dollars. But for the artists who make it (and some try time after time), it was well worth it.

I am 100% ok with paying a fee for submitting artwork, and I consider the chance to have it viewed / the possibility of a line on my resume to be generally worth it. I understand there are administrative costs involved and that jurying is a labor of love. HOWEVER, when I learned that the Tacoma Art Museum based their Biennial decisions partly on artist track record, I was infuriated. I am trying to *establish* a track record, that is why I am paying the submission fee! I feel that their criteria should have been disclosed up front. Yes -- no doubt about it, I am the bitter rejectee -- but I feel an ethical line was crossed here and I'm really pissed.

It seems perfectly reasonable for a biennial to consider the artists' resumes. Biennials should be, I think, a snapshot of the current state of the artworld It's ok for them to have a few unknown artists if they represent a particular trend, but I don't think it should be a blind selection. Many people criticize the Oregon biennial for only considering artists who submit their work, as opposed to actively soliciting particular key regional artists to participate.

Also, I think the opinions to the contrary seem very reasonable... but I still am philosophically against paying for having my art considered for a show. The situation Wonderland describes is exactly the thing I object to: paying for a chance of having a line on the resume--it feels too much like door-prizes. But I'll concede it may just be that I have a stick up my butt :)

Anyway, as I originally mentioned... Portland Modern is something I would make an exception for (if I lived in the Pacific NW)... and I see they just announced their latest call for artists:

http://www.portlandmodern.org/call_for_artists.htm

1) For Photographers, a call for entries are listed at CameraArts website:
http://www.cameraarts.com/contests.php

2) CameraArts blog has a monthly photo contest. Their staff choses weekly finalists, web voting for popularity. Zero cost, one submission per month, small prizes, bragging rights? Ah just have fun. Info:
http://www.cameraarts.com/photocontestrules.php

To vote for last month's "architecture" photos:
http://www.cameraarts.com/photocontestrules.php

Upcoming themes:
Feb 2007: Nature and Landscapes
Mar 2007: Figure and Fashion
Apr 2007: Travel
May 2007: Weddings and Gatherings
Jun 2007: Sports and Action
Jul 2007: Pinhole, Plastic, and Toy Cameras

3) 27th Annual Spring Photography Contest
http://serbin.com/Contests/R/index.html
Early Entry Deadline: April 23, 2007 (fees are only $2.95 per photo)
Final Entry Deadline: May 14, 2007 (fees are only $3.95 per photo)

note: I also don't like pay-for-jury-shows, but sometimes it pays off a bit (if you are careful/lucky about which ones). My honorable mention photo in 2005 actually got the solo cover photo on their book - which lead to some sales so at least that juried show fee was worth it for me, at least that time.