Culture through Kaleidoscope
RFP Open September 5, 2025
RFP Close October 4th, 2025
Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL) has partnered with Resorts World New York City to showcase artists in their acclaimed Red Wall Art Gallery. We seek multidisciplinary artists to display original work for “Culture through Kaleidoscope,” an exhibition conceived and curated by Alma Leya.
A Kaleidoscope reflects a surface with many different individual colors combined with each other in a certain way that creates a pattern when viewed from a distance. Just like the many colored fragments within a kaleidoscope, individual cultures, traditions, and expressions constantly interact, shifting and reforming into new and unique patterns. In any given culture each individual interacting with others creates momentum. When this is repeated in a society, it reflects dynamism, multiple perspectives, diversity and interdependence. Therefore, when viewed in a broader perspective, it reflects the "Culture through kaleidoscope".
All proposed work must be install-ready. The exhibition will be on display at the Resorts World Red Wall Art Gallery from Friday, February 20, 2026 to Friday, April 17, 2026. Artists selected for this exhibition will each receive a $250 stipend. "Culture through Kaleidoscope" is part of JCAL’s Visual Voices curatorial initiative.
About Visual Voices:
Visual Voices is a three-year fellowship for emerging and midcareer visual arts curators. Through Visual Voices, curators identify and cultivate emerging talent; vet artist submissions; articulate the overall design aesthetics of exhibitions; coordinate transportation and collect and track artwork; oversee installation, deinstallation, and related tasks; collaborate with the JCAL artistic and administrative staff; and more.
Visual Voices reflects our leadership’s 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.
Highlights from the first three-year cycle of Visual Voices includes Adrian Bermeo’s show featuring visual interpretations of ancestral music. Exhibition themes also included Black resilience through an Afrofuturist lens; youth gun violence prevention; and music and visual art in the African, Latine, and Caribbean diasporas. The second cycle of Visual Voices begins later in 2025 and runs through 2027.
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.
Work will be reviewed based on quality and the completeness of the accompanying application. You may be contacted with follow-up questions regarding the nature of the work and the manner of intended 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. Submissions received after midnight on October 4, 2025 will not be considered.
Please note:
This is a request to submit artwork for exhibition purposes only. Not an offer for purchase.
JCAL does not offer feedback in any form on submitted works.