Our First Open Call!

We're delighted to announce our first open call for Oxford-based graduates of the MFA programme at Oxford Brookes University to exhibit at the North Wall Arts Centre in April 2025.

This is a free-t0-enter call for submissions of interest. The exhibition will feature 4-6 artists wishing to respond to the theme of 'Dividing Lines'. Please read on for full details.

DIVIDING LINES

North Wall Gallery, 1-19 April, 2025

This open call is only for: Oxford-based graduates of the Oxford Brookes MFA programme

Oxford is a divided city in many ways, from town and gown to haves and have nots. Issues with exorbitant property pricing, educational inequality, historical and contemporary migration, access and provision for disabled or neurodivergent residents, traffic, road safety, LTNs and misguided regeneration often exasperate local residents.

This exhibition will include work by four to six artists around this theme and should examine what it means to live in Oxford. This could be anything from exploring how the city is perceived by its residents and how this differs to its international reputation, to how city suburbs are perceived by each other, how the city has changed over the years, or any other contemporary expression of city living. While exploring the multifaceted experience of living in Oxford, we hope that we may also be able to bring greater understanding of the issues residents face, and possibly offer some suggestions for how they can be resolved.

Outreach: All successful artists will be expe'ted to host a workshop and/or join a panel talk/meet the artist event during the show.

HOW TO APPLY

Please send a proposal outline of no more than 350 words explaining how you would approach this theme. Please include information on what aspect of Oxford living you wish to explore, how you might approach the work, what medium you intend to work in, and what your intended output might be in terms of space/technical requirements. We understand that the work will evolve and requirements may change but it will give us an idea of what to expect.

You may include up to six images of your previous work or sketches of your proposed work.

Please also include:

• Workshop proposal (up to 200 words)

• Artist’s statement (up to 200 words)

• Artist biography (up to 200 words)

• Website/Instagram details

All submissions should be made as a single pdf document saved in the format artist-name_dividing_lines (e.g jane_smith_dividing_lines). To submit, please send an email to hello.obu.atelier@gmail.com by 10am on Friday, March 1st.

Important dates:

• Submission deadline: 10am, March 1st, 2024

• Notification of selection: March 8th, 2024 (All unsuccessful submissions will receive brief feedback from the panel)

• Install: March 31st, 2025

• Take down: April 21st, 2025 (please note this is Easter Monday)

• Commission: There will be a 22% commission on any work sold charged by the North Wall.

• Publicity deadline: promotional photographs of the finished artwork, or part thereof, and information about it must be available by mid-September 2024 to be included in the North Wall publicity materials.

This opportunity is supported by Santander Universities.