Open Call for Visual Art Submissions – Deadline 27th August 2021
LUAN GALLERY ART FAIR & AWARD SCHEME is supported by Creative Ireland and Westmeath County Council
Following on from the success of the 2020 Luan Gallery Art Fair and feedback from participating artists, the arts sector and the overwhelming positive response from the Midlands community, Luan Gallery is delighted to announce it will host a second Art Fair from 7th December 2021 to 30th January 2022. Covid-19 has adversely impacted the arts and creative practitioners and in response to this Luan Gallery will continue to develop support projects for artists that will assist in alleviating some of the economic strain from cancellations and lack of access. We hope these actions will also create opportunities and foster a sense of solidarity between all.
Artists with a connection to Athlone, County Westmeath or one of the following Midlands counties; Roscommon, Offaly, Longford, East Galway/Ballinasloe and Laois are invited to submit a maximum of 4 works for consideration. At least one of the works must represent, capture or respond to your experience or engagement with, knowledge of and or memories of the cultural heritage of the Midlands (people, place, object, building, monument, story/myth/legend, historical event etc.). Works previously submitted for consideration or works exhibited in the 2020 Luan Gallery Art Fair are not eligible.
In addition, the 2021 Art Fair will launch a Luan Gallery Award Scheme (initially on a trial basis). Only artists selected to exhibit in the Art Fair will be considered for this award. The Art Fair selection panel will decide on the Award winner in January 2022 and the winner will be announced before the Art Fair concludes. The Award is A Luan Gallery Emerging Artist Development Award. Further details on the award scheme will be published separately.
Art Fair Offering
- Incentive to create new work
- Attractive space to display and sell your work
- Promotion of the Fair and artists on all our social media platforms
- A reduced commission rate of 23%
- Outreach to local press and radio
- Posters and print advertisement
- Handling of sales including wrapping of artwork
- Opportunity to win an award
- Opportunity to secure a studio residency
- Be actively promoted by the gallery across its social channels
- Avail of onsite and/or virtual networking opportunities amongst fellow artists, curators and audiences
- An online platform to show all the work displayed in the Fair - members of the public will be given the opportunity to express their interest in purchasing the work
Art Fair Sales and Payment
Luan Gallery cannot provide a buyer's information to the artist in the event of a sale under GPDR.
Artists will be required to provide a completed supplier set up form prior to the opening of the fair. Once a work has been sold, artists will invoice the gallery for the amount agreed within the artists application, less the galleries 23% commission. Please be aware that once you have submitted a valid invoice, payment may take up to 4 weeks.
Art Fair Selection Process
Selection will be performed by a panel comprised of Luan Gallery’s management team and external panellists. Consideration will be made according to the following criteria:
- A completed application form with all required information submitted including suitable images.
- Relationship to the Midlands – application must demonstrate this.
- Quality of work.
- Availability of work: all work submitted for consideration must be already completed and not in progress.
- Easily installed/de-installed /transported: due to the quick turnaround of the Fair, works should be relatively easy to rotate, works that require extended installation times will not be considered.
- Large scale 3D work cannot be considered to allow maximum entry of practitioners.
- The panel reserve the right not to select work if, in their opinion the entries fail to meet the exhibition requirements.
- Luan Gallery reserves the right to use the images provided, or details from the images for promotion of the Art Fair. Luan Gallery will remain respectful of the original work and reserve this right based on the need to use the imagery across multiple platforms.
- Luan Gallery will not accept applications made in person.
- Successful applicants must deliver the selected work to Luan Gallery between Wednesday 17th and Saturday 20th November.
Art Fair/Awards Selection Terms
- Only selected work will be included in the Art Fair – if work is sold before the fair opens, alternative work will not be selected.
- Selected work will be hung for the entire run of the Art Fair and will not be replaced if sold and taken by the buyer. Buyers will be encouraged not to take works until the Art Fair ends.
How to Apply
- Please complete the application form in the link provided: www.athloneartsandtourism.ie/application-form – all fields must be completed. Applications with blank fields will not be accepted.
- Provide the necessary documentation:
1 high quality image of each of the works proposed in jpg format. The image dimensions must be no smaller than 1500x1500 pixels and maximum size of 2MB per image.
The images must be labelled correctly and correspond with the artwork titles submitted in the application form. The images should be named in the following manner: Artist Name- title of work 1 – work 1 jpg, artist name—title of work 2, work 2.jpg etc. etc. Images of work should be taken with a plain background; no utilities or objects should be visible in the background. Blurry images taken in poor lighting will not be accepted. Please send jpegs as an attachment with application email or via WeTransfer (images in body of email will not be accepted.
- Screen shots/images of artists bios and statements will not be accepted. Submit the information in the fields provided in the application form.
- Return application and requested accompanying information to info@luangallery.ie by 5pm on Friday 27th August 2021. No applications submitted after this deadline will be considered.
Successful applicants will be notified in October 2021.
Link to Art Fair Application Form
Funding Support from Westmeath County Council and Creative Ireland is gratefully acknowledged
