The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL) is seeking applications from multidisciplinary artists to showcase original work in Free Your Mind: The Expansion, an exhibition conceived and curated by Shenna Vaughn.
This RFP opens on Friday, January 30, 2025, and closes on Friday, February 22, 2025. Submissions received after the RFP closes will not be considered.
Free Your Mind: The Expansion is not just an exhibition—it's a call to break free from the mental barriers that limit us. Building on the foundation of its predecessor exhibition, Free Your Mind, also mounted by JCAL in 2023, this iteration takes the transformative journey of creativity to new heights. It brings together a diverse group of artists who defy their own mental and creative limitations, demonstrating the power of liberation and the boundless possibilities that emerge when we free ourselves from self-imposed constraints.
Any idea, any concept, any medium, whether its abstract, representational, figurative, or surreal—if you have a story to tell or special technique to display, it is all welcomed. Free Your Mind: The Expansion is a safe space to celebrate your freedom through the display of your art. Give yourself permission to push past your own critique and create from a space of wonder and exploration. Show us who you are, tell your stories, and speak your truth on what it is like to be free!
Free Your Mind: The Expansion will open at JCAL on Friday, March 14, 2025, and run through Saturday, May 3, 2025, as part of JCAL’s Visual Voices curatorial initiative. Artists selected for this exhibition will each receive a $250 stipend.
Work will be reviewed based on quality and the completeness of the application. You may be contacted with follow-up questions regarding the nature of the work and intended manner of exhibition. Artists are responsible for transporting and collecting all artwork to and from the institution. JCAL reserves the right to not exhibit artwork that does not meet display criteria or does not align with the institution’s mission.
About Visual Voices:
Visual Voices is a three-year program for a cohort of emerging and midcareer curators who identify as BIIPOC, defined by JCAL as Black, Immigrant, Indigenous, and People of Color. Through Visual Voices, the cohort receives the fiscal, strategic, and institutional support to propose and mount exhibitions in JCAL’s galleries, as well as partner spaces across Queens, that amplify the work of Queens-based artists and explore themes that reflect the BIIPOC experience. Visual Voices curators identify, cultivate, and elevate emerging talent, and produce artist talks, workshops, and demonstrations. The program reflects our conviction that a diverse community isn’t defined top-down by a cultural institution, but rather by giving agency and power to a community to define itself.
Eligibility:
• Solo artists only; no collectives or collaborations will be considered;
• NYC-based artists are encouraged to apply; priority is given to Queens based artists.
• Artists under 18 may participate with parental or guardian consent, with the minimum age being 13.
JCAL welcomes artists of all races, colors, religions, languages, gender identities, sexual orientations, national origins, ages, disabilities, and socioeconomic and marital statuses. Those who identify as part of underrepresented communities, and whose work centers on the artist’s personal experiences and observations, are especially welcome and encouraged to apply.
Application Materials (PDF or Word Only):
Only one application per artist will be accepted. A completed application must contain elements detailed below. Maximum file size is 100MB per file.
A. Artist Statement
Introduce yourself and your journey as an artist (500 words max).
B. Works for Consideration
Submit up to 10 individual works, that are original to you, as follows:
Title, date, medium of work, and dimensions of the work;
Short description of each work (100 words max);
Special exhibition directions, if appropriate, per work (100 words max).
C. Artist CV (optional)
Include a CV if you have one available.
This is a request to submit artwork only for possible exhibition purposes. It does not constitute an offer to purchase any artwork. JCAL does not offer feedback in any form on artist applications.