Artists wanted: ‘Metaphor for a Virus”

The Doña Ana Arts Council (DAAC) is conducting a call for artists residing in southern New Mexico and El Paso to submit work for a juried online exhibit titled “Metaphor for a Virus, Response to the Current Global Pandemic.”

DAAC will begin accepting and jurying submissions on May 15 and will continue accepting entries through Dec. 31, said DAAC Communication Director Kathleen Albers. “The online gallery will be hosted throughout 2020 on the DAAC web page, www.daarts.org, with a link on the “Artists’ Corner” tab.

“Sometimes the changes we see in our lives are clearest with 20/20 hindsight,” said DAAC Executive Director Greg Smith. “This year, coincidentally the year 2020, includes changes that we are painfully conscious of as they occur. Certainly, we will see more when we look back on this time from some point in the future. Still, the experience now is quite profound. ’Metaphor for a Virus’ is one of the ways DAAC is seeking to make the arts a positive part of what we are experiencing. Let us find knowledge, growth and art with which to share what we are seeing. Let us be more for what we have seen and what we have survived.”

“At some point, we hope to organize a live show,” said DAAC Program Manager and exhibit organizer Karen Conley. “As you can imagine, there are other galleries and art organizations across the nation and the world wrestling with how to keep moving forward with shows and promoting artists.”

For an entry fee of $5, artists may submit up to three digital images for the exhibit. Artists should send digital images (jpeg, 72 dpi, 1,200 pixels on the long side, maximum size is one MB) to events@daarts.org. All images must reflect original work, and the artist must own the copyright, DAAC said in a news release.

Submissions should include, the title of each piece to be submitted, its dimensions and medium and a short artist biography or statement. Work may be listed for sale, with all sales transactions exclusively between the artist and buyer. Artists are asked to consider a 20 percent donation to DAAC on all exhibition sales.

For additional information, contact Conley at 314-704-9445 or events@daarts.org.

Temporarily closed until further notice, DAAC offices and the DAAC Arts and Cultural Center are located at 1740 Calle de Mercado in Bulletin Plaza. The mailing address is P.O. Box 1721, Las Cruces, NM. 88004.

For more information, call 575-523-6403 or visit www.daarts.org.