[DP] Web-Based Arts Awards Program

[Laura and Bill]

Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 07:37:25 -0800 (PST)
From: Annette Spanhel <aspanhel at airmail.net>
Subject: The Justice Project Launches "The Artists' Call for Justice", its Web-Based Arts Award Program

March 5,2002

Web-based Student Art Awards Program Announced

Justice Initiative Designed to Tap Creative Energies


The Justice Project today 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.artistscall.org/pr.

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 a
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.artistscall.org/pr.





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