Nearly 20 opportunities for performing and visual artists, plus young artists!

Thanks to our friends at the VSA/Accessibility Office at the Kennedy Center for compiling this list of artist opportunities from across the country. You’ll find calls for art, professional development opportunities and competitions for visual and performing artists with and without disabilities. Some opportunities are open to all artists in certain disciplines; other opportunities are just for young artists.

Performing and Visual Arts Opportunities
(listed in order of application deadline)

Competition: 16th Annual Great American Song Contest
Deadline: November 20, 2014
Are you ready to get your songs heard and reviewed by experienced music-industry pros? Are you looking for opportunities to win prizes, gain recognition and promote your songs with publishers, producers and the music media? The Great American Song Contest is uniquely designed to offer these very opportunities – and benefit every songwriter, lyricist and composer who participates.

Call for Entry: “CORRESPONDENCE” An International Mail Art Exhibition
Deadline: November 21, 2014
The Crossing Arts Alliance presents its upcoming exhibition, “CORRESPONDENCE”, an international mail art exhibition, and invites artists from all over the world to participate. This exhibition is open to everyone, all ages and skill levels, and has an open theme, allowing artists to express their creativity and ideas to the fullest extent. This exhibition will be on display in the Q Gallery, in the Franklin Arts Center

Call for Entry: International Call for Entry – Black and White 2014
Deadline: November 23, 2014
The New York Center for Photographic Arts (NYC4PA) invites photographers world-wide to submit images using any photographic process (print, image transfer, emulsion transfer, iphoneography, encaustic, black and white, etc.). Winners will receive $3,000 in cash awards and be featured in a New York Gallery Show and on the NYC4PA Online Gallery. The Grand Prize winning image will be posted on the NYC4PA home page.

Residency: Art Omi International Artists Residency
Deadline: November 30, 2014
Omi International Artists Residency invites visual artists from every continent, representing a wide diversity of artistic styles, to gather in rural New York State to experiment, collaborate and share ideas. During four weeks each June-July, concentrated time for creative work is balanced with the stimulation of cultural exchange and critical appraisal.

Call for Entries: 17th Annual Postcards From the Edge
Deadline: December 8, 2014
Postcards From the Edge is an exhibition and benefit sale of over 1,400 original, postcard-sized works of art by internationally renowned and emerging artists. It is the most exciting and affordable way to add to your art collection.

Residency: Artspace Summer Artist Residency
Deadline: December 9, 2014
The Summer Artist-In-Residence program at Artspace provides an artist with a month-long studio opportunity to work on a project of his/her choosing and to interact with the public and the artist community. It is also an opportunity for an artist to exhibit the work s/he creates immediately following the residency. During the residency period, the artist teaches up to two classes or workshops in conjunction with the Artspace Summer Arts Program (ASAP) and presents a public lecture or demonstration about his/her own work or a related topic.

Competition: EXPO 34 (BJ Spoke Gallery’s competition)
Deadline: December 10, 2014
EXPO 34, the BJ Spoke Gallery’s annual competition, is open to all fine artists living in the U.S. It will be judged by Adrienne Rooney, Curatorial Assistant of the Whitney Museum of American Art. The award will be the exhibition of selected works, April 2015 at the gallery.

Competition: The John Lennon Songwriting Contest
Deadline: December 15, 2014
The John Lennon Songwriting Contest is an international songwriting contest that began in 1997. The contest is open to amateur and professional songwriters who submit entries in any one of 12 categories. The JLSC is open year-round and features two sessions with 72 Finalists, 24 Grand Prize Winners, 12 Lennon Award Winners and 1 “Song of the Year.”

Competition: New Music for Young Musicians Composer Competition 2014 – 2015
Deadline: January 5, 2015
The James Madison University New Music for Young Musicians Composer Competition recognizes and encourages the efforts of composers studying composition or early in their careers (28 years of age and younger) nationwide who are involved in the creative process of composing music for younger ensembles in middle school through high school.

Competition: South Florida Young Artist Solo Competition
Deadline: January 15, 2015
This annual competition is open to Violin, Piano, and Guitar students in the United States who are middle, high school, or college students. Students compete in a preliminary round by submitting recorded work. The deadline for submission is January 15, 2015. The Final Round is held in Fort Lauderdale, FL on March 21, 2015 in front of a panel of judges. Cash prizes are awarded to the top winners in each age division.

Residency: Yellow Barn’s Summer Chamber Music Program
Deadline: January 15, 2015 (Live Auditions), February 2, 2015 (Videotaped Auditions)
Yellow Barn’s core program is a five-week intensive summer chamber music program for outstanding students and young professionals. Participants explore chamber music repertoire with an internationally renowned faculty, rehearsing and performing together in 20 concerts at the Big Barn, Yellow Barn’s intimate concert hall in Putney, Vermont. Repertoire ranges from the Baroque period to the present day, and often affords participants the opportunity of working with visiting composers.

Competition: 2015 Washington International Competition for Strings
Deadline: March 9, 2015
The Washington International Competition for Strings is held every three years. The 2015 Competition for Strings semi-finals will take place at George Washington University in the Benjamin T. Rome Music Hall at 801 22nd Street, NW, in Room B-120 on both Friday, June 5, and Saturday, June 6. The finals will take place on June 7, 2015, at 2:00 p.m. in the Terrace Theater of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Applicants must be neither younger than 18 nor older than 28 as of the competition date (birth certificate is required).

Residency: Grin City Collective Emerging Artist Residency
Deadline: March 10, 2015
Grin City Collective is located on a 320-acre farm in central Iowa a mile north of the town of Grinnell. During the summer, Grin City invites nine college level writers, visual or performance artists for a special, subsidized 4-week residency. Artists accepted into the Emerging Artist Residency receive individual housing and studio space. The residency ends in a final group show and reading in the downtown Grinnell Art Gallery.

Competition: VSA International Young Soloists Competition
Deadline: March 16, 2015
Coming soon! Each year, a select number of outstanding young musicians with disabilities, ages 14-25, from around the world receive the VSA International Young Soloists Award. These emerging musicians win a $2,500 prize, professional development experiences, and the opportunity to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Started by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith in 1984, the program, open to musicians of any instrument or genre, has provided opportunities for hundreds of emerging young musicians with disabilities.

Call for Entry:  Unsigned Only Music Competition
Deadline: March 18, 2015
Unsigned Only is a unique music competition designed for solo artists, bands, and singers all over the world who are not signed to a major label record company or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or imprints. The goal of Unsigned Only is to find an outstanding, talented performer: a band, singer, or solo artist…a newcomer or veteran…raw or polished – the “gem” that needs to be discovered. Unsigned Only is looking for the total package.

Competition: VSA International Art Program for Children with Disabilities: Yo Soy…Je Suis…I Am…The Future
Deadline: March 30, 2015
Coming soon! VSA proudly presents a unique opportunity for student-artists with disabilities from around the world to display their artwork side-by-side in an online exhibition. A selection of artwork from the online entries will be chosen for a live exhibition in Washington D.C.!

Competition: Festival for Creative Pianists
Deadline: April 1, 2015
This festival is the only competition of its kind in the world, combining both classical and jazz idioms in a constructive educational setting. Students (up to age 19) compete for standard baroque through contemporary repertory prizes, as well as for novel prizes that promote neglected but important creative skills and repertory. We seek to foster diverse and well-rounded musicianship that goes beyond the “autonomic wizardry” that is often overemphasized in other competitions. Above all, pianists are urged to develop and showcase their unique talents and perform with individuality, personality, exuberance, originality, and spontaneity.

Competition: VSA Playwright Discovery Competition
Deadline: April 13, 2015
Coming soon! The VSA Playwright Discovery Competition invites middle and high school students to take a closer look at the world around them, examine how disability affects their lives and the lives of others, and express their views through the art of script writing. Writers may write from their own experience and observations, or create fictional characters and settings. Scripts can be comedies, dramas, or even musicals-be creative! Young writers with and without disabilities are encouraged to submit a script. Entries may be the work of an individual student or a collaboration by a group of students.

Competition: Russell C. Wonderlic Competition
Deadline: TBA
Established in 1990 through a bequest of the late Russell C. Wonderlic, this competition alternates annually between voice and piano and has allowed many young artists the opportunity to launch international music careers. Pianists Awadagin Pratt and Eric Zuber and soprano Hyunah Yu are prominent past winners.

Via: The Kennedy Center/VSA and Accessibility Office

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