Artist Opportunities

John Chakravarty, The Anunnaki Visit Cathedral Rock, courtesy of the artist

DESCRIPTION

Cosmos, creatures, and creative features!

For Creatures and Cosmos, we invite artists to submit their most innovative and futuristic works of art. From cosmic creations and abstract interpretations of the unknown, to vibrant depictions of space, we’re looking for pieces that capture the essence of futurism and sci-fi that will transport viewers into new dimensions.

This exhibit seeks imaginative creatures inspired by the cosmos such as alien life forms, extraterrestrial beings, or mythical creatures that exist in otherworldly realms. We encourage unique interpretations and exploration of creatures all different sizes and shapes. Let your imagination run wild with the infinite possibilities from fantastical beings to evolved bio-mechanical life forms. This opportunity is open to Arizona Artists working in any medium. Creatures and Cosmos will be on display June 14- August 16, 2025. Exhibition-ready works in two or three dimensions and any medium will be accepted, as well as video. The gallery will also consider proposals for performance-based work.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Artists must complete the required submission form and may submit up to 5 works. There is no fee to submit.

Submission form: https://forms.gle/crYw9cyyUtLQ3v9U7

DESCRIPTION

Vision Gallery is seeking proposals for our 2025-26 Vision Kids season. You are invited to submit one or more proposals for individual, one-session classes you would like to teach.

Vision Kids has been central to Vision Gallery’s programming since 1997. These visual arts classes for kids age 6 to 16 are free to anyone who would like to participate, providing important access to arts education that our community’s youth may not be getting in school. We believe that all kids deserve an outlet to be creative.

Program Details

• The deadline to submit a proposal is Tuesday, April 29, 2025.
• Classes are 2 hours each and are held in two separate sessions on Saturdays (10am – 12pm and 1pm – 3pm) with an hour break in between. Instructors will teach the same class twice on the same day.
• Class projects must be completed in the 2-hour session.
• Vision Gallery will purchase all supplies with a rough budget of $50 per class
• Teaching artists are paid a stipend of $125/teaching hour. Payment is made following completion of the class, up to a total of $500.
• We will be hosting 24 in-person classes and 2 virtual classes.
• Currently we are programming for July 2025 – June 2026.

Important Considerations

• We are planning to host two virtual classes. For these proposals, please utilize materials commonly found at home – for example, “something to color with” rather than “Prismacolor watercolor pencils”. We are able to provide some supply kits, but we are not able to give away supplies that are normally reusable in our studio to every family (ex. needle-nose pliers). If you have questions about this, please contact us – we are happy to discuss in more detail before you submit your proposal.
• We are planning to host two classes led in Spanish and are seeking proposals from bilingual instructors.
• Our Vision Kids students come from diverse ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It is important to us that our roster of teaching artists is just as diverse. Individuals across the spectrum of race, gender identity or expression, and sexual orientation are encouraged to apply.

How to Apply
Please fill out our Google Form to apply by Tuesday, April 29:
https://forms.gle/hQ3d1LkXLkPnccyG7

If you are selected as an instructor, we will require the following materials by May 20:

• A photo example of a completed project example that we can use for marketing your class
• A photo of you that we can use for marketing. This can be a headshot, portrait, or selfie.
• Completed contracts and forms for payment

Need Help?
Interested, but need more information? Samantha Groff, program coordinator, is also happy to answer any questions you have, go over your proposal ideas with you, and provide feedback before you apply. You are welcome to reach out by calling 480-782-2695 or emailing [email protected]. You can also take a look at some of our recent classes here to get a sense of what we are looking for.

Description

The Chandler Arts Commission is looking for an Arizona-based artist to create an artwork that will highlight the importance of the historic Goodyear Canal, located in the heart of the Ocotillo area in the historic Goodyear Townsite. This artwork could take many forms and will be located on-site in South Chandler near the canal. The ideal candidate will have experience working with budgets over $100,000, community input, and historical significance – sculptors, painters, and interdisciplinary artists are encouraged to apply. The project budget will be $150,000, and will include all aspects of the project including but not limited to: design, fabrication, project management, transportation, installation, and insurance. All designs are subject to approval by city staff

This is a request for qualifications, not a request for proposals. We are only requiring examples of past work. Selected finalists will be given additional information and be paid a stipend for their designs.

Qualification submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 5, 2025, and can be submitted digitally via the webform found here: https://forms.gle/Lpc2tDb4kWVEDzHXA

Submission Criteria – All entries must include:

1. Current contact information, including email and phone number
2. Digital Images: Up to 5 images can be submitted per artist or team of past completed projects. All images should be 1500 – 2000 pixels in the longest direction.

In one document:

3. A current resume or curriculum vitae (CV) including artist(s) accomplishments. Resume or CV should not exceed 2 pages per artist team member. If a resume is not available or does not accurately represent your qualifications, please submit a list of your artistic accomplishments. Please note, no previous public art experience is required to participate in this opportunity.
4. Optional – an introduction not to exceed 500 words explaining your previous completed projects (if applicable) and any inspirations you will draw on for this project.
5. A corresponding image list with all pertinent information is also required. Image list should include size, date completed, and materials used.

Submission Delivery Details

Submissions must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 5, 2025. Submissions must be sent digitally via the webform found here: https://forms.gle/Lpc2tDb4kWVEDzHXA

Any incomplete submissions will be rejected.

Contact: Public Art Staff at 480-782-2695 or [email protected]

Interested, but need more information? Does this sound daunting? Visual Arts Staff Peter and Hanley are happy to answer any questions you have, go over your submission info with you, and provide feedback. Please do not hesitate to reach out.

Description

The Chandler Arts Commission is looking for an Arizona-based artist to create an artwork for the upcoming Traffic Management Center in Chandler Arizona. Stakeholders are interested in an outside artwork that references commonly used traffic signage. Painters, digital artists, photographers and sculptors are encouraged to apply. The project budget will be $20,000 and will cover all aspects of the project including but not limited to: design, fabrication, project management, transportation, installation, and insurance. All designs are subject to approval by city staff.

This is a request for qualifications, not a request for proposals. We are only requiring examples of past work. Selected finalists will be given additional information and be paid a stipend to submit proposals.

Qualification submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 12, 2025, and can be submitted digitally via the webform found here: https://forms.gle/Zz1W3KDYtWXCLgoo8

Submission Criteria – All entries must include:

1. Current contact information, including email and phone number
2. Digital Images: Up to 5 images can be submitted per artist or team of past completed projects. All images should be 1500 – 2000 pixels in the longest direction.

In one document:

3. A current resume or curriculum vitae (CV) including artist(s) accomplishments. Resume or CV should not exceed 2 pages per artist team member. If a resume is not available or does not accurately represent your qualifications, please submit a list of your artistic accomplishments. Please note, no previous public art experience is required to participate in this opportunity.
4. Optional – an introduction not to exceed 500 words explaining your previous completed projects (if applicable) and any inspirations you will draw on for this project.
5. A corresponding image list with all pertinent information is also required. Image list should include size, date completed, and materials used.

Selection Process and Schedule

All artist submissions will be reviewed by the City of Chandler Arts Commission. All entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 12, 2025. The City anticipates selecting one artist or team for this project. The projected timeline for this RFQ is as follows:

May 5                                     Submission deadline

May 23                                   All artists notified of standing

June 30                                  Finalist designs submitted

July 18                                    Finalists notified

August / September           Contract finalized / Meet with appropriate stakeholders

October                                 Designs finalized

November – Spring ‘26       Production/Installation

Summer ‘26                          Celebratory event

Submission Delivery Details

Submissions must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 12, 2025. Submissions must be sent digitally via the webform found here: https://forms.gle/Zz1W3KDYtWXCLgoo8

Any incomplete submissions will be rejected.

Contact: Public Art Staff at 480-782-2695 or [email protected]

Interested, but need more information? Does this sound daunting? Visual Arts Staff Peter and Hanley are happy to answer any questions you have, go over your submission info with you, and provide feedback. Please do not hesitate to reach out.

Description
The Chandler Arts Commission is looking for Arizona-based artists to add to a pre-qualified Community Arts Engagement list. Artists on this list may be commissioned to create participatory community art engagements for City of Chandler events and festivals.

What are community art engagements? Here’s how we define them:

• Interactive: community members participate by making something
• Collaborative: participants are working together on a collective effort rather than an individual masterpiece
• Connective: the activity encourages participants to engage beyond a surface-level interaction – ex. socially, emotionally, intellectually, artistically

While we do not have a limit for how many artists will be added to the Pre-Qualified list, we have several events that we are planning to hire for in 2025-2026, each with a $1,000 – $3,000 budget. This budget will cover all aspects of the project including, but not limited to, design, project management, materials, creation / installation, and time spent leading the activity on the day of the event (most events are a single day, lasting 4-8 hours).

Artists working in all media are welcome to apply, including visual artists, dancers, musicians, theatermakers, and more.

Qualification submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 12, and can be submitted digitally via the webform found here: https://forms.gle/iTUQBehoE1t5j2PF8

Submission Criteria – All entries must include:

1. A cover letter summarizing your past experience and highlighting why you are interested in community art projects
2. A portfolio illustrating the details of up to 5 projects with the following for each:
a. When the project occurred
b. Description up to 200 words
c. Budget
d. Any partner organizations or commissioning bodies
3. Up to 3 professional references

This is a request for qualifications, not a request for proposals. For this application we are only requiring examples of past work.

Selection Process and Schedule
All artist submissions will be reviewed by Chandler Museum staff and the City of Chandler Arts Commission. All entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 12. The timeline for this RFQ is as follows:
May 12 Submission deadline
May 23 All Applicants Notified

Events We are Commissioning For:
Chandler Contigo Kickoff Fiesta – Saturday, September 20, 2025
– The Chandler Contigo Kickoff Fiesta marks the start of the City of Chandler’s Hispanic Heritage month festivities. This colorful half-day event held at the Downtown library includes music and dance performances, storytelling, food, art activities, and more with thousands of intergenerational attendees.

Chandler Multicultural Festival – Saturday, January 17, 2026
– This dynamic festival honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the ideals of the civil rights movement, bringing people together to embrace cultures from around the world. It is an all-day festival drawing thousands of attendees of all ages.

Chandler Innovation Fair – Saturday, February 21, 2026
– The Chandler Innovation Fair showcases the businesses, artists, students and innovators in the community and offers unique opportunities for attendees to explore the discoveries of science engineered in their own backyard. It is a half-day festival drawing thousands of attendees, primarily kids and families.

Culture Music in the Park – Saturday, June 13 [tentative], 2026
– Get ready for an unforgettable evening as we come together to celebrate Juneteenth and Freedom Week with Culture Music in the Park. Enjoy live performances that will set the perfect vibe for a night of unity, diversity, and joy. This is an outdoor evening event drawing hundreds of attendees, mostly adults.

Artists who are added to Chandler’s Pre-Qualified Community Artist List but not selected for a specific event this fiscal year may be contacted as other opportunities arise. Artists selected to create a Community Art Engagement will be notified no less than three months before the event.

Submission Delivery Details
Submissions must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 12. Submissions must be sent digitally via the webform found here: https://forms.gle/iTUQBehoE1t5j2PF8

Contact: Caroline Hudson-Naef, Community Engagement Specialist 480-782-2698 or [email protected]

Interested, but need more information? We are happy to answer any questions you have, go over your submission info with you, and provide feedback. Please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Description
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Terre des Hommes (published in English as Wind, Sand and Stars)

With the constant onslaught of news media around us, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and disconnected from the world around us. As a respite from these intense narratives, exploring minimalism through art offers a refreshing Palette Cleanser, inviting us to reflect on simplicity in a chaotic world.

Simplicity reveals a profound beauty, as it strips away extraneous details to reveal clarity in your artistic thought, design and execution. Maybe your best work is known for its clean lines or its geometric shapes. Do you use a limited or monotoned color palette? Does negative space play a big role in your art? Is your quilt stitching stripped down to the essential shapes needed to highlight and emphasize your design? Perhaps you’re pushing the craft forward by making modern interpretations of traditional quilt blocks or by creating three-dimensional sculptures from quilts that result in spare and elegant forms.

However you use minimalism in your art quilts, we want to see your submissions for the 30th Annual Art Quilt exhibition. Practicing the art of reduction requires a deep understanding of your subject, excellent technical mastery and the ability to identify the most crucial elements of the quilting craft to create dynamic emotional effects and leave a lasting impression in your viewers. Palette Cleanser celebrates the beauty of minimalism and encourages simplicity, clarity, and timelessness to create powerful, thought-provoking pieces.

About the Juror
Susan Allred manipulates textiles and other fibers to explore the ways they affect and reflect our daily lives. Her work expresses her thoughts and feelings about society’s expectations for women, their bodies and their work. Her artistic process, which is lengthy and repetitive, becomes a meditation on “women’s work” — the painstaking labor, both mental and physical — that has historically been dismissed as merely decorative or utilitarian instead of as the product of a fertile, creative minds. By transforming quilts into non-functional sculptural works that invite viewers to think about concepts that may be controversial, Allred questions the notion that crafts cannot be used to create fine art while also commenting on the invisibility of women’s labor.

Allred’s work has appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions, most recently in a two-person show at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum. She was an artist member at Eye Lounge contemporary art space and served as co-president for two years. Allred lives and works in Tempe, Arizona.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
For a $20 fee, artists may submit up to 3 works for consideration. Please follow these instructions:

1.  Complete artist submission form
   a. Please complete the online submission form with all of the information relevant to your submission including contact and title card information. You will need the following: title, medium, year created, and sales price for all three artworks, images, and an artist statement with any information you think will be relevant to the juror. When pricing your work, please keep in mind the gallery’s 50% sales commission.
2. Access the form here: https://forms.gle/t2jfaRQhv7k1hZzh6
3. Payment: the $20 submission fee can be paid either online or by calling 480-782-2695. Submissions are considered incomplete until the submission fee has been paid.
   a. Pay online here: https://square.link/u/nER0usGO

QUILT DISPLAY
For ease of installation, please ensure your quilts have sleeves appropriate to their sizes. These sleeves should be large enough for 2-inch slats. If your piece has a hanging system other than a sleeve, please contact us prior to entering to ensure it will be compatible with the gallery’s hanging requirements. It is a great help to our installation staff if you include slats with your artwork that fit properly in relation to the length of your sleeves.
• Slats should NOT have a wire attached to them.
• Slats SHOULD have holes at both ends large enough for a nail to fit through. 

Please label slats and any packing material with artist name and artwork title.

EXHIBITION TIMELINE

Entries due: Monday, September 12, 2025 at midnight
Notification to artists: Late September
Work drop-off in person: October 27-30
Work shipped to gallery must arrive no later than Thursday, October 30th
Opening reception: Saturday, November 8, 4-6 pm
Show closes: Saturday, January 24, 2026
Work pick-up: Monday, January 26, 2026

ELIGIBILITY
All quilt artists are invited to enter. Collaborative work by two or more artists is also permitted. The works must not have been previously displayed at the Chandler Center for the Arts or Vision Gallery. Works should have been completed within the last three years. Both two and three-dimensional textile combinations will be accepted.

JURY FEE
There is a fee of $20 to enter up to 3 works. This fee is non-refundable.

SHIPPING/DELIVERY
All delivery and shipping costs are the responsibility of the artist. To ensure your shipping and insurance needs are met when we ship your artwork(s) back to you, we ask you to include a completed return label when you send work for installation. This helps us efficiently process shipping at the end of the show.  Art must be received by Thursday, October 30, 2025.

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING
Rules listed are for U.S. artists. While shipping costs remain the responsibility of the artist, accepted international entries are handled on an individual basis to assure an efficient and cost-effective delivery.

INSURANCE
Works are insured while on display at Vision Gallery for 50% of the retail price for the duration of the exhibition. All paperwork must designate whether an artwork is available for sale or is listed as NFS (not for sale), along with the insurance value.

SALES COMMISSION 
All artworks offered for sale are listed with a 50% commission, unless specified by the artist as not for sale. Commissions are paid in the month following the sale.

GALLERY HOURS
Vision Gallery is open 10AM – 5 PM Monday – Friday and 10 AM – 4 PM on Saturdays. Call 480-782-2695 for holiday hours.

CLOSE OF EXHIBIT

Artworks from local artists may be picked up on Monday, January 26. Non-local works will be shipped beginning the week following the close of the exhibition; see Shipping/Delivery for details. Accepted artists will be notified with more detailed instructions prior to the close of the exhibition.

QUESTIONS?
Contact staff at [email protected] or call us at 480-782-2695.

Installation view of the exhibition Concerned, but Powerless, by artist Safwat Saleem

Are you interested in showing your work at Vision Gallery or the Chandler Center for the Arts? We always accept exhibition proposals for both spaces and jury them on a rolling basis during the months of January and June. Please click the button below to access our submission form.

Interested artists are encouraged to contact gallery staff prior to submission with any questions they may have. Gallery staff can be reached at [email protected] and 480-782-2695.

Tips

• Incomplete and improperly formatted applications may not receive a response
• Small group exhibitions including 2-4 artists in different media organized around a common theme are more likely to be accepted than solo exhibitions. This benefits both the gallery and the artists as it attracts a wider variety of viewers, but still allows the artists to display a cohesive body of work, as opposed to individual objects.
• Solo artists may still apply, but will be considered for both group and solo exhibitions.
• The quality of your images matters. Make sure your photographs are in focus, well lit, and with a plain background. It is possible to take good photographs with your phone, but if you have a better option – use it! Here is a good tutorial for taking quality pictures of your artwork with a smartphone.
• We do not have a budget for shipping artwork. If you live outside of Arizona, it may be quite costly to get your artwork to and from the gallery.
• Take a look at our past exhibitions to get a feel for the kinds of shows we host.
• If your primary goal is selling artwork, we might not be the right gallery for you. Although we are thrilled when artwork sells, our focus is on hosting engaging, thought-provoking exhibitions for our community to enjoy and not commercial sales.