FenceART – 2022 Call for Art

FenceART is a year round public art project sponsored by Newton Community Pride (NCP) and curated by Ellen Fisher. It is dedicated to bringing vibrant, varied and engaging art to neighborhoods throughout Newton. Each year a jury-chosen group of 20 works by Newton artists, embracing a broad range of styles and media, are printed on high quality vinyl banners. The banners rotate in small groups to 5 viewable fence locations in Newton for approximately 10 weeks at a time.  Over the course of a year, all 20 works are shown at all 5 locations. Artists may claim their banner (as is) at the end of the rotation.

ELIGIBILITY

All artists who currently reside, work, volunteer, worship, or participate in art classes in the City of Newton are invited to submit work for this public art project. Artists may submit 3 jpegs of work in any media, including but not limited to photography, painting, quilting, collage, and photos of 3D work.  Exception:  Artists accepted in any year must skip a year before applying again. (i.e., artists who’s work is currently on view as part of FenceART may not apply in this round).

ATTRIBUTION

Artist name, image title, and artist website will be included on the banner by the signage team. Other than a signature that may already be included on the original artwork, please leave attribution to the signage team.

TIMELINE

Deadline for submission is Wednesday December 1, 2021.
Accepted artists will be contacted by Friday, December 10, 2021.
Accepted artist list published on the NCP website by Friday, December 10, 2021.
Banners go into rotation in February 2022 and remain in rotation for approximately one year.

IMAGE SIZES AND REQUIREMENTS:

• Please do not enlarge images before submitting.
• Do submit the largest version of the image that you have. Our team will enlarge as needed.
• Image files must be Jpegs, and may be up to 10 meg.
• Submit images that are crisply in-focus. The better the details look, the better it will work as an enlarged banner.
• While our optimal size for printing is 4000 to 7200 pixels in the wider direction, we have had good results with smaller images — we will tell you if we have a problem with the size of your file.
• Do not submit images with digital watermarks.
• How to Photograph Your Artwork For Best Results* See below

If you have any questions about images sizes or photographing work, please contact Ellen Fisher at Ellen@Ellen-fisher.com.

SUBMITTING:

• When submitting, tell us how you learned about this call for artists.
• Submit up to 3 images. Each image may be up to 10 meg in file size.
• Submit images by email with a subject line of “Newton FenceArt Submission” to Ellen@Ellen-fisher.com
• To prevent your email program from shrinking the image files, attach images as “actual size” or in a zip file. If your email program suggests sending via icloud, that’s a fine option.
• Submissions will receive an acknowledgement email reply within 24 hours on business days (it’s not automated). If you do not receive an acknowledgement email, please send an inquiry email without jpegs attached, so we can diagnose why the email failed to reach us.

Artists who’s work is chosen give FenceART and Newton Community Pride permission to use the image in promotional materials.

 *How to Photograph Your Artwork For Best Results

• Cloudy outdoor lighting is your best/easiest option. A covered porch or positioning near a large window can work well.
• Photograph 2D work with the camera (or phone) at the same angle as the artwork:
  if the work is leaning against a wall, lean the camera to the same angle. In the viewfinder, if the work looks larger on one side, or at the top or bottom, your camera is not at the correct angle. The work should look “square” to all four edges of the viewfinder.
• When using a phone to photograph, always check the image on a computer or other larger screen, to make sure it really is crisp. Using a good camera is your best bet, but we do understand that many people depend on their phones now to take photos of their artwork.
• See these websites for tips. If you are using your phone, don’t worry about the references to camera settings. The rest of the info about lighting, turning off your flash, camera angle etc, are still very relevant.
  • vimeo.com/20503333
  • theartleague.org/blog/2015/08/13/the-zero-budget-guide-to-photographing-artwork/