2025 Terrain Biennial: DIY (Call for Projects)

Terrain’s 2025 Biennial is "DIY!”

From crafting to painting, mending to stitching, construction to recycling, artists are resourceful, performing science and alchemy with time and material. DIY is a core value of the Chicagoland art community. Artist spaces, apartment galleries, DIY shows, makerspaces, and lending libraries are key resource hubs for artists. Imagine what artistic community can look like.... and make it yourself!

Terrain Biennial is a grassroots public art festival that brings artists and neighbors together to put public art on the front lawns (and porches, windows, and rooftops, too!) of neighborhoods across the world. There is no fee to participate; artists or curators imagine and propose a project at a site, proposals are reviewed by Terrain's team, artists install their projects in September, upload information and photos, and Terrain compiles the projects into a Biennial map. Terrain Biennial projects should be visible from the street or sidewalk 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the full duration of the Biennial. Learn more about past Terrain Biennial projects on our website.

Check out more details and guidelines in the project proposal form. Proposals are due May 13th, 2025. Our DIY Toolkit for Artist Projects, matchmaking message board, and Virtual Application Workshop are coming soon!

Questions? email us at info@terrainexhibitions.org !

Terrain Exhibitions is a 501c3 Not for Profit organization founded in the State of Illinois. Terrain is partially funded by the Oak Park Area Arts Council, in partnership with the Village of Oak Park, the Illinois Arts Council Agency and the National Endowment for the Arts. Terrain also receives support from The Hyde Park Art Center Artist Run Chicago 2.0 Fund and the Montage Foundation.