Justice Initiative Designed to Tap Creative Energies
WASHINGTON--(COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Mar 18, 2002--The Justice Project has announced the launch of its web-based arts award program, the Artists’ Call for Justice, which is designed to give art students a venue to speak out on issues of social justice.
Students who are enrolled at any post-secondary school can participate in The Artists’ Call and submit entries in the fields of animation, graphic design, photography and video. The Artists’ Call is designed to be incorporated directly into an existing communications art curriculum and invites art instructors to encourage their students to become involved in the web-based award program.
Interested parties can register now on the Artists` Call website: http://www.artcall.org/cpw
The Artists’ Call for Justice was created by The Justice Project, a national, non-profit, non-partisan organization, as a way to not only advance the cause of justice, but to involve new voices and new insights. It is hoped that The Artists’ Call will help engage a new generation of young people in civic and political life.
“Art is not only a potent and powerful medium to convey conviction,” said Bobby Muller, chairman of The Justice Project and co-founder of the 1997 Nobel Prize-winning global campaign to ban landmines, “but it also provides new perspectives to old ideas. We believe the creative energies of young artists in particular can provide fresh insights to intractable arguments.
``Student artists working in the visual and communication arts are creating phenomenal, transcendent works which the public rarely gets to see. The Artists` Call was designed as a model program that strengthens career-advancing skills and opens the door to authentic political engagement,`` said Dan Walsh, The Artists’ Call program director and political arts activist.
“What young artists need is a venue to explain their work, an audience before which they can perform. The potential to have one’s work seen, discussed, reviewed, argued about, critiqued, or even attacked is of infinite value to a young artist,” continued Walsh. “It is precisely The Artists’ Call that provides this outlet.”
Walsh pointed out that involvement of communication arts instructors is key to the program’s success. In fact, a number of arts educators from around the country, including Jeff Morin, chair of the Department of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin, have already embraced The Artists’ Call.
``The Artists` Call is an ideal program for both young artists and arts educators,” said Morin. ``It is a model curricula-enrichment program that meaningfully challenges students.``
It is through instructors that The Artists’ Call is hoping students learn about this new art awards program. Once they are aware of The Artists’ Call, students are being encouraged to register immediately as participation is on a first-come, first-serve basis. All qualifying artwork will be displayed in the Artists` Call web galleries (last year’s poster submissions can be viewed at http://www.artistscall.org/gallery
Up to 400 semi-finalist entries will be reviewed by a jury of communication arts experts who will select up to 36 artists as finalists. Awards include an annual membership in the College Art Association (CAA) or the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), and gift certificates for computers/software. The instructors of each student finalist will receive a Teacher Recognition Award as well as gift certificates.
For more information, visit The Artists’ Call for Justice web site at: http://www.artcall.org/cpw
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