3 Ways for Artists to Find Public Art Projects
My top strategies to find public art projects.
Finding public calls for art that are worth your time to apply to takes some effort. Here I’ll list my top tips and strategies for finding the ones that are right for you! I have several murals in Atlanta, most of which came from winning public calls for artists.
I found my first public art project on Facebook three years ago. I can’t quite remember how I saw the posting, but it was for public art in my neighborhood of Old Fourth Ward in Atlanta. I must have been following a local neighborhood group that shared the call. I applied and got selected! That project fueled my desire to do more so I set out to find art calls! So far most of my work has come from public art projects. Public art can have low budgets or high budgets, bring you great exposure, or not so much, or at the least be great practice. It just depends on the call…and those are also some of the factors I use when determining whether or not to apply to something. But above all, public art is really important. It’s a form of beautifying your city or neighborhood, sharing different perspectives with viewers, and brings art to the people, for free. Not all art should be in museums, with barriers to entry like having to buy a ticket. Art adds culture and personality, which can be invaluable to communities.
The main ways I find public art calls are online, via social media and on websites with art calls. I’ll go over some of those in detail below! These tips should help you get started looking, but know that it takes time! I’m someone who loves to make lists and do research, so the act of ‘hunting’ for art calls has been fun for me!
#1 Start where you live:
City governments may have a public art program or initiative, maybe within a cultural affairs division, like Atlanta does. The Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs is one place to look for art calls. You can follow ones from cities all over your region, not just your city! Sometimes they require the artist to be local, but other times it’s wide open.
Neighborhood associations. Not only can you follow the neighborhood group where you live, but I suggest following MANY of them all over your city. These calls are often not well publicized and it can be easier to get selected if you are a newbie, because they may have less applicants. Follow these pages on all social channels, bookmark their website if they have a call for artist page, and sign up for their email list.
#2 Search on social:
Search hashtags on instagram #callsforart and #callsforartists. Follow those hashtags so they pop up in your feed daily. I prefer the ‘artists’ one because it may mean that they are looking for individual artists, rather than art submissions. (This could also mean you just submit your portfolio, rather than submitting a design for consideration.) Most of these calls will be for gallery shows, so you just have to sift through in case you find a really cool public art call hiding in there. **This is the hardest method and usually is just luck. It’s actually how I found the art call for ArtPop ATL last year!
Follow a toooon of people and organizations on Instagram! I currently follow over 2,500 people and this is largely why. You never know where an art call may pop up. All those neighborhood associations may be on instagram, art orgs, other artists share them, etc. Social media is often the first place I see an art call, or a friend may share it with me!
#3 Call for Art boards:
There are a couple decent art call websites out there that either curate a list of art calls on their website, or where people go to post their art call directly. These usually have email lists you can join so you get daily or weekly notifications of when a new call is posted. Search google and see which ones you can find that seem relevant to your work! One great one is PublicArtist.org.
Artist geared organizations may also have their own page where they collect art calls from around the region to help support the artists they serve. Find these org’s in the area where you live and start following them. A great one supporting artists in Atlanta, is Opportunity Arts.
*Pro tip: Start a bookmarks bar in your browser and save direct links in a folder of all the Calls for Art pages you find, so you can check them periodically.
In closing:
Do your own research and you may find even more than what I’ve listed here. I’ve spent many hours searching and list making and following. I encourage you to do the same if you want to get into the public art game! It’s really fun and rewarding to create artwork that the public can see everyday. To me, there’s no more exciting feeling than seeing my work tangible, out there in the real world.
This post is part 1 of 2. Soon I will go over some tips for your public art application!
What else would you like to know?
Reach out to me and let me know what other topics I should cover, or tips I should give!