For the second year, the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville is inviting local artists to engage with Artosphere: Arkansas’ Art + Nature Festival via a photography contest. The venue’s annual festival enters its second decade (11th year) as organizers continue to navigate closures and event postponements in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
One part of the festival that will continue nearly unencumbered is the photography contest — open to photographers of any level.
“We were looking for ways to engage more with the community and offer ways to let them participate in Artosphere at their level. We also wanted a way to showcase more local artists in our community,” Meghan Dale, WAC learning and engagement coordinator, explains of adding the photo contest to the festival.
“This year, we wanted to continue that ability to showcase local artists and pull our community deeper into Artosphere, but made the theme a little broader so, hopefully, it will be easier for people and more interesting to see their interpretations of this year’s theme.”
Last year’s theme — for both the festival and the photo contest — was “Space,” as in outer space. For 2020, Artosphere’s theme is recycling. Not wanting to limit potential entries too much, the photo contest’s complementary theme is “Beauty of Reuse.”
“That’s open really to anything,” Dale reveals. “Nature and landscape, images that celebrate action on behalf of the environment, images that encourage us to be green or explore environmental issues — it’s really open to however the photographers want to interpret that theme.”
Rather than hanging on display at the WAC as the chosen entries were last year, this year’s winners will be promoted on WAC social channels, website and blog. Due to programming adjustments in response to the coronavirus, the festival isn’t happening in its usual format, but WAC staff continues to explore the best ways to share the arts with the community. If an opportunity arises to present the work physically, organizers will explore the option.
Two other changes for the contest’s second year were already in place well before the open call: a lowered entry fee and a cash prize for the grand prize winner. These efforts aim to establish more accessible participation for all.
“The whole goal of the festival is to encourage us to live more sustainably, so any images that come through that help viewers understand the world that they’re living in and the impact that they have upon it would be really wonderful,” Dale says of looking forward to seeing the entries.
“I’m excited to see what they come up with and then also what motivates our audience or changes their worldview based on these images.”
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JOCELYN MURPHY
jmurphy@nwadg.com
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FYI
How to Enter
Visit waltonartscenter.org/artosphere/photography-call-for-entry/ and follow the contest entry link.
Entry Fee: $10 (includes 3 entries)
Entry Deadline: 11:59 p.m. Sunday, April 5