WE SEE YOU: Diversity Equity and Inclusion in 2024 Juried Annual Exhibition at the Oak Park Art League
WE SEE YOU: Diversity Equity and Inclusion in 2024 Juried Annual Exhibition at the Oak Park Art League
Friday, May 31 - June 28, 2024
Jurors: Pia Cruzalegui & Mia Garcia-Hills
During this election year, the Oak Park Art League will host a national juried exhibition that aims to spotlight the values of the broader Oak Park community that celebrates inclusion, diversity and equity, during this time in our nation’s history when these very ideals are blatantly under attack.
The artworks will be selected from a national call to underrepresented voices from BIPOC populations, refugees, disabled, unhoused, incarcerated, queer, and transgender artists and reflect these experiences at this particular time when diversity, equity and inclusion are suppressed more than ever before.
This exhibition acknowledges that each artist’s journey is different and aims to celebrate contemporary expressions of artists from diverse backgrounds, identities and communities, understanding that these terms encompass a rich tapestry of cultures, traditions, and perspectives.
Judge’s selections for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place, cash awards
More details and important dates and submission link here https://oakparkartleague.submi... semi-annual-juried-exhibition
- An online exhibition of works will be hosted on OPAL's website and represent all entries.
Open to all mediums, No AI-generated artworks
• Any artist submitting film or video please inquire about available projection system or provide your own display device.
• Size is limited to 36” in its largest dimension
• All work must be ready to hang with wire. No sawtooth hangers will be accepted.
• All work should have been completed in the past three years and not previously exhibited at OPAL.
• Please deliver/ship work during drop-off dates to the Oak Park Art League at 720 Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, IL.
About The Judge: TBA
Important dates:
Submission deadline: April 28
Notification: May 5
Drop off/Accept work: May 18, 20-24
Exhibition dates: May 31 - June 28, 2024
Artist Reception: Friday June 14, 2024
Pick up/ Return work: Week of July 1
Submission fee:
$35/4 works, $5/ additional work
About the Jurors:
Pia Cruzalegui
Pia is a trained filmmaker and multimedia producer, a self-taught photographer, mixed media artist, painter, and curator. Since very early in her career she was attracted to experimental forms and films, and it took no time to realize the ephemerality and potential of video as an art medium. Pia has always been interested in the manipulation of images and the temporality of video and sound in an art space to explore other possibilities of narrative and other ways of seeing, listening and experiencing art. In 2014 Pia was invited to curate time-based media works at the Zhou B. Art Center. For a period of 18 months, while she worked through her graduate degree, she organized and curated new media art works into the art center’s Third Friday monthly program. Since then, curating spaces and opening opportunities to emerging artists has been a joyous exercise. Pia is also the founder and director of Twisted Oyster, a film and new media festival, and has continued to collaborate in diverse projects and art spaces.
Pia holds a BA in Video, Film and Multimedia from Florida Atlantic University and has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Pia was given a recognition award by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage of Quito, Ecuador, for her work Rojo Rosa Rosado, in 2019, and her video documentation project, “American Tales in the Making” (2020), funded by the National Endowment of the Arts Big Read, was commissioned by and archived at the Freeport Art Museum, in Illinois. ​​​​​​​ Pia Cruzalegui was born in Peru. She lives and works in Chicago where she works as an artist, curator and producer.
Mia Garcia-Hills
Mia Garcia-Hills is a trained artist, educator, trauma-informed yoga teacher and activist scholar. Her work in and beyond the studio often draws on her various areas of interest, which allows her to integrate mindful movement, creativity and critical reflection.
Mia was a Coca-Cola Foundation Museum fellow. Prior museum and gallery experiences include internship and professional positions at the Chicago History Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Gallery 400 and GBU Gallery. Mia has taught art courses at Morton East High School, Lake Park High School, Multicultural Arts School, Social Justice High School, Yollocalli Youth Museum, Gary Comer Youth Center, Morton College, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Concordia University Chicago. Mia served as an external program evaluator for Representations: A series on Culture, Politics and Aesthetics a year-long program that was developed by Theaster Gates and Lee Ann Norman and hosted by Experimental Station. Mia was a founding board member of Positive Fields, a 501(c)3 nonprofit makerspace that provided free access to technology to youth and entrepreneurs in the rural community of Hogansville, Georgia.
Mia has exhibited her work at Around the Coyote Arts Festival, Mars Gallery, UIC’s GBU, Montgomery Ward and Art Lounge Galleries, and Concordia University’s Ferguson Art Gallery. Mia has presented research on the essential role art can play in human, community and cultural development at Wheaton College, American Education Research Association Conference, University of Illinois Chicago, and National Art Education Association Conferences.
Mia earned her BFA’s in Art Education and Studio Arts from University of Illinois Chicago, MAAE in Art Education from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her PhD in Leadership: Higher Education from Concordia University Chicago.
