Open Call
To Northeast Florida Artists
Jax Contemporary Triennial Juried Exhibition
Presented by Dolf and Anna James
Following the celebration of its centenary in 2024, MOCA Jacksonville is excited to launch Jax Contemporary, a triennial art exhibition bringing to the fore the artistic talent in the Greater Jacksonville and Northeast Florida region, including Flagler, Putnam, Baker, Clay, St. Johns, Duval, and Nassau Counties.
This initiative is intended to deepen the museum’s relationship with the local arts community and to foster the growth of the arts ecosystem of the area.
To this end, an important professional development component will be included for the artist finalists, including professional guidance, studio visits, and critique from MOCA’s Senior Curator, together with a national visiting curator, Adeze Wilford, who will also help select the work to be on display in the exhibition. These studio visits facilitate meaningful discourse between the artist and the curators and are an essential step to connecting Jacksonville-based artists to a broader network of curators and institutions.
In addition, the participating artists will have an opportunity to talk more broadly about their work during Artist Talks. These will take place in the MOCA Theater throughout the exhibition during Museum Nights and VyStar Free Saturdays, which are high traffic days with free entrance to the public. In this way, Jax Contemporary seeks to support and promote the contemporary art practices of our area, sharing the broad vitality of artistic voices representing this moment in history in Jacksonville with the general public.
Jax Contemporary fulfills MOCA’s mission by activating and engaging our local communities in contemporary art, offering patrons an opportunity to connect with local artists and cultural producers that explore national contemporary aesthetic discourses and ideas from a Florida First Coast perspective.
Artist Prizes to be announced.
Submission Guidelines
ELIGIBILITY
- Jax Contemporary 2024 juried art exhibition is open to all non-student, working professional artists 18 years and older, with a recognized body of work and practice.
- Participants must reside in the Greater Jacksonville and Northeast Florida region; this includes Flagler, Putnam, Baker, Clay, St. Johns, Duval, and Nassau Counties only.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
- The application will be through the Qualtrics platform. A link will be provided on the MOCA website once the entries period opens September 9, 2024.
- You will be asked to provide a narrative biography and a resume/CV.
- Each artist or artist collective may submit up to three representative samples of their work. With each submission you may upload up to three images of that piece to allow for detail shots. Accepted work will be disqualified if misrepresented or if application images are digitally enhanced.
- All work must be original and completed within the last two years (2022-2024).
- All arts media are encouraged; drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media installation and new media. Work will not be judged by media categories.
- Samples may include images, videos, sound files, PDFs, and other mediums used in the work.
SIZE AND CONTENT
- Work should not exceed 70lbs. in weight and 6 ft. in any direction. Any work submitted that exceeds the maximum size and weight will not be admitted.
- While our goal is to accommodate the broadest range of self-expression, we want to ensure that our full community feels welcome. Please respect the following guidelines in creating your artwork:
- No content that attacks, slanders, or promotes hatred against people or groups based on race/ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, nationality, political affiliation, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity will be accepted.
- Profanity is not permitted; no name calling, slurs, threatening content, and/or inciting violence will be accepted.
- Sexually explicit, pornographic, violent, drug glorifying, or needlessly upsetting content will not be accepted.
- Any content that is deemed to violate intellectual property rights — that includes copyright, trademark, plagiarism, and other proprietary rights, will not be accepted.
- Work using materials that are hazardous to the health and safety of the public will not be accepted at the discretion of MOCA Curatorial Staff.
Any artwork submitted that violates these Guidelines will not be accepted.
DEADLINES AND TIMELINE
- Online entry will open September 9, 2024 and close at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, October 18, 2024. No entries will be accepted after this deadline.
- Notification to finalists will be sent through email the week of December 8, 2024.
- Studio Visits with participating artists to take place throughout January 2025 for final choice of work for the exhibition.
- Accepted works (shipped or hand-delivered) must be received by MOCA no later than 5 pm on Friday, March 14, 2025.
SHIPPING AND DELIVERY
- All work, whether shipped or hand-delivered, should arrive at MOCA soft-packed (i.e. bubble wrap, packing blankets or the like) in reusable packing material.
- A tombstone label must be attached to the work (not the packing material) that includes Artist Name, Title, Year, Medium, Dimensions.
- All work must be ready for installation with appropriate hardware and installation instructions. New and digital media must be prepared to provide the support for display including, but not limited to, projectors, screens, DVD players, iPads, audio equipment, headphones, computers, and software.
- Shipped work must have a pre-paid label for return shipping. Work submitted without return provisions and unclaimed after 30 days after the last day of exhibition will be disposed of.
- All packing material must also be clearly labeled with “Artist Name, Object Title”. The Museum will not be responsible for loss, theft, or damage to work due to inadequate packaging and/or shipping arrangements.
- All works must have an insurance value. A signed insurance form will be required for all accepted entries.
- All deliveries must take place from Monday, March 10 through Friday, March 14 from 9 am to 5 pm. All hand deliveries should be mutually agreed upon with the Museum’s Registrar.
- The work should be addressed to:
QUESTIONS?
For questions related to submissions and installation, please contact our Curatorial Team at mocacuratorial@unf.edu.
TIMELINE
SUBMISSION: Entries will open September 9, 2024 and close at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, October 18, 2024. No entries will be accepted after this deadline.
REVIEW OF SUBMISSIONS: Monday, October 21 through Friday, December 6, 2024.
NOTIFICATION TO FINALISTS: Notification to finalists will be sent through email the week of December 8, 2024.
STUDIO VISITS: Studio Visits for participating artists to take place throughout January 2025.
DELIVERY OF WORKS: Accepted works (shipped or hand-delivered) must be received by MOCA no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, March 21, 2025.
INSTALLATION: Monday, March 24 through March 28, 2025.
OPENING TO THE PUBLIC: March 29, 2025
OPENING RECEPTION: April 10, 2025
National Visiting Curator Adeze Wilford
Adeze Wilford is Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami. There, Wilford has spearheaded Art on the Plaza and Welcome to Paradise, temporary public art commissions, and organized the 2023 South Florida Cultural Consortium, expanding the ways MOCA North Miami provides a platform for local talent.
Previously she was an Assistant Curator at The Shed in New York, where she organized Howardena Pindell: Rope/Fire/Water and Open Call. She was an inaugural joint curatorial fellow at The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She organized Vernacular Interior at Hales Gallery in 2019 as well as Excerpt (2017) at the Studio Museum and Black Intimacy (2017) a film series at MoMA. Other curatorial projects include Harlem Postcards F/W (2016/2017) and Color in Shadows (2016). She has contributed scholarship to various catalogues and magazines including Young, Gifted and Black and Black Refractions. She graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in Art History and African American Studies.
Together with MOCA Jax’s Senior Curator, Wilford will perform studio visits and critiques with the artists, discussing their art practice, their goals and expectations, and helping them through the process of selecting the work to be incuded in the exhibition.
Partner Organization CoRK Arts District
CoRK Arts District is a large warehouse facility that houses gallery and work space for more than 70 artists in Jacksonville. Conceived by local developer Mac Easton and artist Dolf James in 2011, CoRK was conceived to support artists in the community by offering artist workspaces in an environment that is conducive to creativity and collaboration. In addition, it fulfills its mission by providing gallery areas for exhibition and flex space for artists to have the ability to execute large projects. Crystal Floyd, a practicing artist and curator, serves as Studio Director since 2017. Floyd’s focus is on developing programming for CoRK that will enable more connections between the artists and the public, and give the artists the opportunity to teach classes and workshops to foster growth in the area.
