Current Resident — Open Call
See your work in the Seattle Gay News Pride Edition!
We are running a special edition of our Current Resident project. We typically do direct commissions of artists whose work we admire, and we typically work with them rather closely to create alignment between their work and the goals of that edition of Current Resident.
This time around, we are doing an open call! We invite artists working in a variety of mediums to submit their work to be included in the Summer ‘25 Pride Edition of Seattle Gay News, in print and online. New work will be commissioned from the selected artist, who will receive a $2,000 honorarium.
Current Resident commissions black artists to create a unique work of art that will be mailed to all residents of distinct Seattle zip codes. This public art project is inspired by the data collection and distribution processes of direct mail service providers that businesses (and politicians) use to solicit new customers—the "Current Resident" mailers are typically addressed to.
The Black Embodiments Studio purchases ad space in the same glossy, colorful direct mail packets that residents already receive every week with the goal of generating unexpected moments of encounter with black artists and their works. In the process we aim to push the practice of “public art” and the idea that “art should be accessible” to their limits. What if we simply sent free black art to as many people as possible?
About Current Resident
Submit Your Work
We are using Google Forms to receive and consider your work: your contact info, 3 images of your work, and a description of no more than 200 words of your idea for the print and digital placements.
Please note that the final work(s) will be placed as full-paged print edition and in multi-format digital placements on the Seattle Gay News website—or, if interested and able, the artist will create additional and complementary work(s) for the digital placements. See “Final Artwork Submission” below for more details.
Best practices:
Ensure you have the time and capacity to create new work for this deadline-based project
Browse the BES and Seattle Gay News websites to understand our missions and practices
Think carefully and intentionally about what it would mean to create work for print as well as digital
Submission Details
Selection Process & Timeline
The BES staff will be reviewing and making the artist selection based on artistic skill, your current practice, and the ability for your artwork to be adapted (or additional work created) for digital.
Timeline:
Submission due — May 2
Current Resident selection announced - May 9
Final commissioned artwork to BES - June 11
Art will run in Seattle Gay News - June 27
Final Artwork Submission
The final artwork will be submitted in the following formats:
Print — full-page, 10” x 16” space. Artwork can be oriented vertically or horizontally. PDF or jpg format; 300dpi. BES will work with you to incorporate information about you, the work, and BES.
Digital — rectangle at 300 x 250 pixels, banner at 728 x 90 pixels, mobile at 320 x 50 pixels. jpeg, png, or gif formats; 72 dpi.
Notification & Communications
We will notify the selected artist by May 9. After arrangements with the selected artist has been made, we will notify everyone else know that the process has moved along. We do not have the capacity to provide feedback on your submission!
Any questions not answered on this page, email Lauren Jackson Harris.
“Installation”
The final artwork will in the Pride Issue print edition, launching June 27. This print edition circulates throughout Seattle, WA for free—the selected artist’s work will be “on view” as long as anyone can get their hands on a print copy. The digital “ads” will begin running then as well, and will be up for one month.