FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Socrates Sculpture Park Announces Annual Open Call 2024 with a new Cohort
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact
Debbie Pressman | Positive Jam PR | debbie@positivejampr.com
Socrates Annual 2024 Open Call
The Socrates Sculpture Park Annual Fellowship 2024 Open Call
New Cohort added to this year’s Open Call
Long Island City, NY, November 2, 2023 – Socrates Sculpture Park, the internationally renowned outdoor site for public art and community engagement located along the East River in Long Island City, New York, is proud to announce its Open Call for Proposals for The 2024 Socrates Annual Fellowship. This year, the Fellowship expands to include more early-career artists, with up to ten projects in two distinct cohorts. Each Artist Fellow selected through the Open Call is awarded a production stipend and access to the Park’s outdoor studio facilities, as well as technical and administrative support for the creation and installation of an artwork within the Park. The Fellowship culminates in The Socrates Annual, an exhibition that showcases Fellows’ completed works, opening in September 2024 and closing in March 2025.
With this year’s prompt, “Invasive Species”, Open Call applicants are encouraged to consider the legacies of species migration alongside the themes and myths of invasion related to people, animals and plants. Artists will apply to participate in one of two cohorts. The first cohort invites site-specific ecological interventions that will integrate with the landscape, while projects in the second cohort will have a distinct and considered material approach, but not necessarily a living element.
Since it was formalized in 2000, The Fellowship has welcomed an impressive array of artists including Leilah Babirye (2018), Sable Elyse Smith (2016), David Brooks (2009), Hank Willis Thomas (2006), Orly Genger (2004), and Sanford Biggers (2001).
“After the incredible and moving success of the previous year’s cohort, bringing their individual interpretations of material ontology, sustainability, and world-building within our dynamic park, we are excited to open up the opportunity for more than one cohort this year, with the intention of emphasizing histories of migration.” said Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, Curator and Director of Exhibitions at Socrates Sculpture Park. “This expansion will not just provide a larger platform for early career, interdisciplinary artists, but will allow for a greater opportunity for visitors and our local community to witness artists activating the entire Park through ecological interventions and on-site fabrication in Socrates’ unique open-air studio.”
“We are so excited to expand our long-standing Fellowship this year, in the spirit of increasing access to Socrates’ important platform for artists and in hopes of growing the opportunity for participation and involvement with our community,” said Katie Dixon, Interim Executive Director of Socrates Sculpture Park. “With Kaitlin’s vision for the prompt ‘Invasive Species,’ we’re leading with a provocation and we’re excited to see how artists will respond. We look forward to the conversations and interactions their work will spark among our friends and neighbors grappling with climate change with us here on the coastal edge of Western Queens.”
Once an illegal dumpsite, in 1986, a coalition of artists and community members led by artist Mark di Suvero transformed the land into an outdoor exhibition space. Now a world-renowned New York City public park, Socrates Sculpture Park supports artists with resources and space and believes in the importance of creative expression for urban improvement. The park serves as a hub for cultural events, contemporary exhibitions, multi-disciplinary performances, and arts education.
For full details on The Fellowship Open Call for both Cohorts 1 and 2, please visit https://socratessculpturepark.org/open-call-2024
ABOUT SOCRATES
For over 35 years, Socrates Sculpture Park has been an award winning model of public art production, community activism, and socially inspired place making. Most recently Socrates was honored with the Public Art Dialogue 2023 Founders Award. Over 1,200 artists have created and exhibited new works on its five waterfront acres and outdoor studio facilities. Past exhibiting artists include Agnes Denes, Jeffrey Gibson, Guadalupe Maravilla, Virginia Overton, Jean Shin, Sable Elyse Smith, Nari Ward, Meg Webster, and Hank Willis Thomas. Socrates is free and open to the public 365 days a year from 9am to sunset. It is located at 32-01 Vernon Boulevard (at Broadway) in Long Island City, New York. Socrates Sculpture Park is a not for profit organization licensed by NYC Parks to manage and program Socrates Sculpture Park, a New York City public park.
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For more information on Socrates Sculpture Park, please give us a shout: Debbie Pressman at Debbie@positivejampr.com