Boston is simply the best town ever.
LA can have the Olympics, we have something totally way cooler than that - the Boston Biennial!
And as trend-makers and others in the know are well aware, 2016 will usher in the 4th and most ambitious incarnation of this beloved local institution.
Steeped in the tradition of our charming seaside village, the BB4 will build on solid foundations of bank robbery and creative cussing to bring the world a Biennial that only Boston could produce.
And we can't do it without you. Because you're an artist aren't you? Well, then, what are you waiting for, a frigging written invitation?
Submit your work here, and add your vision to the colossus that will be the BB4. If your work is selected by the jurors for inclusion in the BB4, it will be displayed on a digital projection for the entire month of April 2016 at the BB4's primary venue, Altantic Works Gallery, a member-run collective and artist community that is far too sexy for Milan, New York, and Japan.
And if your work is one of the multitude of prize winners, you will invited to display your winning piece in the gallery in it's fleshy 3D entirety as well. There will be (at least) two gala champagne receptions during the course of the Biennial - which all included artists will be invited too.
CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE BOSTON BIENNIAL 4
We know (from hard experience) that artists just love to wait until the last possible moment to respond to calls for entry. But there are great reasons to break from this time-honored tradition and enter the BB4 early.
For one thing, if your entry is completed by 12/31/16, you will benefit form the Early Bird Special Entry Fee of $30 for 3 entries, and $5 for each additional entry! After 12/31/15 the entry price will go up by $5.
Even more important, you will have a much better chance of having your work promoted as part of the publicity for the BB4. We feature an entry of the day every day during the entire entry period - sending a chosen image out on FB to several thousand people - and linking to the entrant's website or facebook page. Additionally, we send out Entry Sampler Email Blasts several times during the lead up to the contest, highlighting some of the most interesting work that we have received.
Near the end of the entry period we are swamped with the number of replies, whereas at the beginning is much slower - greatly increasing your chances of being included in one of these publicity vehicles. Not to mention that your image could be selected to appear on a postcard or a poster for BB4!
CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE BOSTON BIENNIAL 4
Read the full Boston Biennial 4 Prospectus including juror info here:
The Biennial Project is proud and excited to announce an open call to artists worldwide for Boston Biennial 4 - an online juried competition and digital presentation being held at Atlantic Works Gallery in tony East Boston this spring!!
Submit your work, and add your vision to the colossus that will be the Boston Biennial 4.
If your work is selected it will be shown on The Biennial Project website and in a blog posting reaching 40,000 (yes, really) very important people of influence in the art world. You know - The Big Wigs.
If your work is selected by the jurors for inclusion in the BB4, it will also be displayed on a digital projection for the entire month of April 2016 at the BB4's primary venue, Atlantic Works Gallery, a member-run collective and artist community that is far too sexy for Berlin, New York, and Abu Dhabi.
And if your work is one of the 20 prize winners chosen by 20 Special Prize Jurors*, you will invited to display your winning piece in the gallery in it's fleshy 3D entirety as well. There will be 2 (at least) gala receptions during the course of Boston Biennial 4 - which all included artists will be invited to of course.
Additionally, we send out Entry Sampler Email Blasts several times during the lead up to the contest, highlighting some of the most interesting work that we have received. We also highlight entries a few times a week on our social media sites. So many chances to have your work seen by others!
For more information about Boston Biennial 4 and how to enter click and submit your work simply go to
http://the-biennial-project.com/BB2016_Intro.aspx
The BB4 Opening reception is being held at Atlantic Works Gallery on Saturday April 9th 2016 from 7 to 9 pm.
A Third Thursday reception will be held at Atlantic Works Gallery Thursday April 21st. This is a great opportunity to bring all your friends who couldn’t make the first reception.
SELECTION PROCESS: Work will be selected from your digital images of your artwork. Jurying will involve viewing the entries individually and making determinations on the basis on the work.
JURORS: All work will be juried by the internationally known art collective The Biennial Project with Special Prizes picked by our celebrity Special Guest Jurors.
Our special guest jurors so far include:
María Magdalena Campos-Pons is a Cuban-born artist based in Boston. She works primarily in photography, performance, audiovisual media, and sculpture, and is considered a key figure among Cuban artists who found their voice in a post-revolutionary Cuba. Her art has been shown in scores of solo and group exhibitions, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City; the Venice Biennale; the Johannesburg Biennial; the First Liverpool Biennial; the Dakar Biennale in Senegal; and the Guangzhou Triennial in China. Her work is in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Canada, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, the Miami Art Museum and the Fogg Art Museum. She currently teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Marjorie Kaye is an artist and curator as well as and the founder and director of Galatea Gallery in the Boston’s south end. She received a BA in fine arts from Syracuse University, and has exhibited regionally and nationally, receiving much positive press in the process. She is a tireless advocate for the art and artists of Boston.
Henry Horenstein is a professional photographer and teacher. He earned his MFA at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he is now professor of photography. His work is collected and exhibited internationally, and he has published over 30 books, including Black & White Photography: A Basic Manual, and Digital Photography: A Basic Manual, used by hundreds of thousands of students as their introduction to photography. He has also published several monographs of his own work, including Show, Honky Tonk, Animalia, Humans, Racing Days, Close Relations.
David Hilliard is a well-known photographer. He received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art, and his MFA from Yale. His work is in so many important collections that we don’t even know where to start in listing them. He has published and taught widely, including at Yale and Harvard, and is currently a Visiting Professor at Lesley University College of Art and Design. He is a past recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.
Kelly Dempsey is a current contestant on season 14 Project Runway, invited as a designer to show at the 13th Annual New York Chocolate Fashion Show in New York. She is a Fashion Designer/Hip Hop/Avocados/Optimist.
O’mega Red is a Boston native and nephew of Donna Summers. He is CEO and record producer of The Stay Grindin Music Group, a rapper and an actor.
Nadeem Mazen is an educator, entrepreneur, community organizer, and is a City Councilor in Cambridge, MA. He is CEO of Nimblebot, a creative agency, as well as co-owner of danger!awesome, a makerspace that brings creative expression and tools to the masses. He first arrived in Cambridge to study Engineering at MIT. He has taught at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and was also the head coach of the MIT Squash Team.
Sonjia Williams was a runner up on Project Runway All Stars Season 4, came in 5th on Project Runway Season 10. A Boston native, Sonjia studied design at Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts and after gradation relocated to New York where she began working as an independent fashion designer. Thereafter, she won a spot on the 10th Season of Project. She also kicked ass on Project Runway All Stars 4 where she finished the season by debuting a line shown at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week to rave reviews.
Sarah Hutt is a mixed media sculptor whose work focuses on memory, dreams and the ever-changing reality they create. As a long-time resident of Boston’s South End, she was a key player in establishing the first successful mixed-use artist live/work space utilizing a surplus city-owned building in 1990, and has consulted on other similar projects around the country. Sarah is an art consultant for The New England Foundation and was previously the director of the Boston Art Commission and managed Boston's public art collection.
Samual Donovan came in Second Place on Lifetime TV’s Under the Gunn. Sam is a Newton, MA native who is a model-cute Parsons grad has fashion wisdom well beyond his years, and enough sass to fill a workroom.
Stephen Tourlentes received his BFA from Knox College and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, where he is currently a visiting professor of photography. His work is included in many collections including the Princeton University Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago and has been exhibited at the Revolution Gallery, Michigan; Cranbook Art Museum, Michigan; and S.F. Camerawork, among others. Tourlentes has received a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Polaroid Corporation Grant, Massachusetts Cultural Council Grants, MacDowell Colony Fellowships and was a Finalist for the ICA Boston’s Foster Prize for 2010.
Emily O’Neil is executive Director at Fort Point Arts Community. She is addicted to her iphone camera and would like to go back to Paris and see The Louvre. That’s where “I was when I first realized I truly loved art. I was 14 and across a painting called The Entombment of Atlala by a Pre-Romantic painter Anne-Louse Giroder de Roucy-Trioson, and I was heartbroken, mesmerized and hooked”.
Erin Becker is the Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the Cambridge Art Association. Erin serves on the Board of Directors of the Harvard Square Business Association; the Advisory Board for Cambridge Open Studios; and is a co-founder of the Art Centers Alliance, a group of roughly 25 community arts leaders. She is also a past reviewer for the Cambridge Arts Council’s LLC Grant Program, and past Gala Committee Member at the Guidance Center. Erin holds a BA in Art History from Boston University, and a Certificate from Boston University’s Institute for Nonprofit Management Leadership Core Program at Questrom Business School.
David Day has been active for over 20 years in the music industry, wearing many different hats: label manager, editor, music journalist, retailer - you name it. Most recently he founded the Together Festival, Boston’s springtime celebration of Music, Art and Technology (now in year 5) and remains the festival’s Creative Director. Two years ago, he co-founded the Mmmmaven Project, an educational initiative in Central Square, Cambridge, where he serves as Director, managing marketing, social media and human resources. He has been the editor of The Weekly Dig Newpaper in Boston.
Helena Fruscio is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has been The Creative Economy Industry Director at State of Massachusetts. Helene is the Chair of the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce’s Fine and Performing Arts Award, she sits on Berkshire Navigation-Berkshire Data Collection Steering committee, Berkshire Blueprint Steering Committee, and is an active steering committee member of the Berkshire Young Professionals. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) School of Imaging Arts and Sciences in Ceramic Sculpture, with a concentration in Anthropology/Sociology. She also studied at Studied at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Matthew Wilson is MASSCreative’s first Executive Director, Matt directs advocacy campaigns and organizational development for the organization. As the National Director of the field staff for MoveOn.org from 2005-2006, Matt helped develop and implement the strategy behind MoveOn.org’s successful 2006 Call for Change, which recruited and trained more than 100,000 volunteers in 60 swing Congressional and Senate districts. As the Founder and Director of Toxics Action Center from 1989 to 2005, Wilson assisted more than 300 neighborhood groups address toxic pollution issues in their communities. Wilson graduated from Dartmouth College in 1983 and also earned a Masters of Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2008.
Kaveh Mojtabai is the founder and publisher of Artscope Magazine. He has appeared on various “Money Matters” and entrepreneurial business radio networks where he explained how Artscope’s business model supports connections between artists, collectors and the public. His previous work included astronomy research at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He lives in Quincy, Massachusetts, enjoys running and flying planes. He loves his mom and is a momma’s boy.
Jean-Paul St Germain is an extremely successful entrepreneur, investor, and collector. Raised in Massachusetts, he received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his Master’s from Columbia. Feeding a life long interest in art and the artistic process, he has amassed a substantial collection of contemporary art. He currently lives in Connecticut.
Eligibility
Open to all artists. Open to all media, including 2-D, 3-D, sculpture, photography, performance, video, installation mixed media, and art from a kit
Entry Requirements
Jpegs must be < 4MB. Videos entries must supply a link to a YouTube or Vimeo video. If a video is submitted, a jpeg that is representative of the content is not required but will be helpful in getting people to click on the online gallery link if the video is selected as one of our winners. The video link must not require any authorization to view.
Prize-winning work selected by our Celebrity Guest Jurors must be delivered to the Atlantic Works Gallery in East Boston by the artist or an authorized representative of the artist. No mailing of prize-winning work will be possible. Artists will also be responsible for picking their work up from the gallery after the show. We do not have any capacity to store art work after the show. Any work not picked on the scheduled pick up day will be subject to a $10/day storage fee. Any work not picked up in 30 days will become the property of The Biennial Project.
Reproduction of Art Work
The Biennial Project reserves the right to reproduce submitted works for Biennial Project printed materials, advertisements, electronic media, internet, television, catalog, DVD, magazine, gallery shows and enjoyment in our own homes. Copyright and other rights remain that of the artist.
Entry Fee and Payment: The Early Bird entry fee for The 4th Boston Biennial 2016 is $30 for 3 entries, and $5 for each additional entry! After 12/31/15 the entry price will go up to $35 for 3 entries with $5.00 for each additional entry. Payment is by Paypal:
APPLICATION DEADLINE: All application materials must be submitted by 12pm EST Feb 1, 2016.
JURORS: All work will be juried by the internationally known art collective The Biennial Project.
OTHER CONDITIONS: Incomplete or unpaid entries or will not be considered. Images of accepted work may be retained and used for publicity purposes. Entries will not be returned. The entry fee is non-refundable. All entrants will be added to our mailing list.
Acceptance Notification: The names of all accepted artists can be obtained on the The Biennial Project Home Page (www.the-biennial-project.com ) by March 10th. Artists will not receive individual notification of acceptance.
Calendar
Feb 1st midnight Deadline for entry
March 10th Notification of acceptance on our blog
April 9th 7pm -9pm BB4 Opening Reception
April 21st 6-9pm BB4 2nd Reception
Contact Information
The Biennial Project
80 Border Street
East Boston, MA 02128
www.the-biennial-project.com
info@the-biennial-project.com
Mission Statement
The Biennial Project is an artists’ collaborative whose goal is to explore the nature and understand the perception of biennials within the art world and, in so doing, to develop a collective body of work that will be exhibited in as many biennials as possible – especially the really cool ones.