This year’s O+ Festival explores the duality of noise.
In this year of consequential electoral politics, protest, war, disinformation, oversaturation and overstimulation we are seeking to examine, engage with and transcend the noise of our humanity.

Noise can be heard, seen or felt. It is not merely a nuisance or disturbance to be silenced but a dynamic force that shapes our perceptions, emotions, and interactions. It is a metaphor for the constant barrage of stimuli that inundates our senses, shaping our perceptions and influencing our behaviors. It is the gray area between what appears black and white where the majority of life happens. It can distract, obscure, and harm as it can also clarify, motivate and energize.

Within noise lies the potential for both disruption and innovation, discord and harmony. At once, noise has the capacity to uplift, inspire, and unite as well as to be used to disrupt or distract us from what is real or distance us from the sounds of our own minds. Noise can be righteous, insistent, a catalyst for profound transformation, a source of creativity, and a vehicle for social change. Through embracing the richness of noise in all its forms, we seek to foster a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between individual expression and collective experience. There are power dynamics inherent in noise – who controls the narrative, whose voices are amplified, and whose are silenced. Inequities and injustices are perpetuated by the amplification of certain voices over others. We can reclaim agency in the face of noise, forging connections, and building communities grounded in empathy and understanding. But we must reflect critically on the threats posed by the manipulation of reality in the digital age and not be overwhelmed into complicity by the din.

We are calling artists, musicians and writers of all mediums, genres and modalities to explore the paradoxical nature of noise and its role in shaping our shared human experience. They are invited to reflect on their own relationship with noise – to interrogate the sources of discord in their lives and envision pathways toward harmony and equilibrium. From vibrant murals that capture the pulse and persistence of life on a grand scale to immersive, intimate soundscapes that invite contemplation, to drum beats, exclamations, collective exhales and shared silence, we hope to build a symphony of noise– full of the beauty, dissonance, harmony and resonance, chaos, silence and amplification – in order to reframe noise not as a disturbance, but as a vibrant force of empowerment, positivity, liberation and connection from which deeper truths can emerge.

The Buffalo Bills Art Program seeks to commission a professional visual artist, or artist team, to create exterior public artwork(s) to be placed at the New Highmark Stadium grounds. Selected artist or artist team's scope will include, but not limited to, imagining, proposing, designing, engineering, fabricating, delivery, and installation of a herd of large-scale American Bison (buffalo). Project meetings and working closely with stakeholders required. This artwork will be thematic, public-facing, and part of the permanent collection at the Stadium.

Project

The Buffalo Bills Art Program seeks to commission a professional visual artist, or artist team, to create public artwork(s) to be placed in New Highmark Stadium. This artwork will be thematic, public-facing, and part of the permanent collection at the Stadium.

Commission Description:

An exterior, public, large-scale, custom commissioned permanent sculpture featuring a herd of American Bison. Location within the public “family circle” area of New Highmark Stadium grounds.

Commission Theme & Prompt: a herd of large-scale American Bison (buffalo) to be imagined, designed, engineered, fabricated, and installed by an artist/artist team as a monument to the Buffalo Bills experience.

To learn more about the Theme,

Watch the “Exclusive Inside Look At The Bills Stadium Experience | Built For Buffalo”

Episode 2: The Experience

https://youtu.be/-XEwmlBrF0g?si=34t753p_j8wPprd1

About the Site: “Family Circle”

An exterior, accessible area outside New Highmark Stadium where family, friends, and fans can gather, take photos, engage with public art, and learn about the history of the Buffalo Bills.

This space is the ceremonial front door to the stadium with the highest volume of spectators coming into this corner of the stadium. This communal space visually and historically ties the existing team store and Highmark Stadium in with the new stadium and the Bills family future. The element that is the focus in the foreground is the family of Buffalo sculptures that range in size and height. The setting for these sculptures includes: a raised concrete plinth to elevate the sculptures, exposed boulders and cobbles on the ground plane, a large swath of tall ornamental grasses in the background of the sculptures, and concrete seat walls surrounding the space.

Framing this central communal area are seat walls, terraces and a variety of ornamental planting in the 3-4’ height range with large shade trees creating a corridor to focus the eye on the new stadium and Buffalo sculptures. The ground plane helps to tie all the Family Circle elements together. A mix of concrete and exposed aggregate concrete helps to reinforce the definition of the Family Circle while encouraging circulation into and around this space.

View Site Details & Specs

For more information about the site visit:

https://www.buffalobills.com/news/stadium-news

https://www.buffalobillsnewstadium.com

About New Highmark Stadium Project: Watch

Episode 1: The Concepting Behind the New Bills Stadium https://youtu.be/TYJxJdICI1I?si=_MFSeCqXMUQIBQKH

Buffalo Bills Highmark Stadium Background

Highmark Stadium is a stadium in Orchard Park, New York, in the Southtowns of the Buffalo metropolitan area. The stadium opened as Rich Stadium in 1973 and is the home venue of the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills. It was recognized as Ralph Wilson Stadium from 1998 to 2015, New Era Field from 2016 to 2019, and Bills Stadium in 2020. The stadium is open-air, with a capacity of 71,870. It has never had a natural grass field. In 1998, $57 million were spent to refit the stadium with larger seats and more luxury and club seating as part of the Bills lease renewal with Erie County. Highmark Stadium has hosted multiple concerts, including The Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. Highmark Stadium is well known for having some of the most fervent fans in the National Football League.

The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s American Football Conference (AFC) East division. Founded in 1959 as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL), the Bills joined the NFL in 1970 following the AFL-NFL merger. The franchise is owned by Terry and Kim Pegula, who purchased the Bills after the death of original owner Ralph Wilson in 2014.

The Bills won consecutive AFL Championships in 1964 and 1965. The Bills appeared in four consecutive Super Bowls from 1990 to 1993. The Bills have a current streak of five consecutive playoff appearances.

Buffalo Bills New Highmark Stadium Project Description

New Highmark Stadium is an American football stadium under construction in Orchard Park, New York. It will replace the Bills’ existing stadium of the same name and is expected to open in time for the 2026 NFL season. The 62,000-seat stadium is being designed by Populous, a group that has designed twelve other active NFL stadiums.

The project includes a new 1.35 million GSF open-air stadium, 18,750 SF ancillary building, demolition of the current stadium, and related site development. The stadium’s capacity will be a minimum of 60,000 seats with an expandable capacity to hold special events. Premium areas will include suites, ledge seats, clubs, and other premium seating products.

The stadium will include state-of-the-art video and scoreboards, sound system, administrative and event staff offices and lockers, broadcast facilities, team store, locker rooms, food service kitchens and concessions, signage, sports lighting, maintenance, and storage areas, plaza, parking, and site landscaping.

The groundbreaking for the stadium occurred in June 2023.

Over the next year, the Buffalo Bills Art Program at Highmark Stadium will include Calls for Art of various sizes and budgets for newly commissioned artworks. The first artwork to be commissioned will be the American Bison sculptures.

Delivering a World-Class Stadium for the Buffalo Bills

The Bills, in conjunction with Legends, and stadium architectural firm, Populous, have left no stone unturned in covering every innovative element of new stadium design. The stadium exterior highlights a visual identity that reflects some of the historical architecture of Buffalo, while also delivering a modern appearance.

New Highmark Stadium will foster culture of:

• Belonging: a culture of Bills fans, where they can be together as a community

• Pride: a culture that lives and breathes for the Bills

• Generosity: a culture that finds a place in their hearts to be generous

• Honor: a culture that knows how to honor those that have graced the uniform and those who cheer the loudest

• Respect: a culture that respects the grounds built for them

It's also a place to call home through:

• Football: the place where every football fan wants to be, and the place where every visiting team hates to play

• Functionality: the place where no one notices the things that make it function well

• Comfort: the place where it feels warm and safe; safe for families

• Thoughtfulness: the place every other NFL franchise will say, ‘Wow, they thought of everything,”

• Experience: the place where fans experience the loudest, vibrant, toughest, ground shaking Bills football

Budget

The American Bison sculpture commission location and budget are as follows:

Location: Exterior Family Circle

Budget: up to $5,000,000 (five million US dollars), all inclusive

Budget includes, but is not limited to, semifinalist stipends, design fees, travel, engineering, fabrication, supplies, material costs, meeting and administration hours, labor, artists legal review fees, approval by a New York-licensed engineer, permits, licenses, lighting, equipment rental, shipping, delivery, documentation, installation.

Application Requirements
RFQ Submission Materials

Please submit the following via https://www.callforentry.org/ by no later than Monday, April 29, 2024 by 11:59 p.m. MST. Submissions received after this deadline will not be considered. Submissions emailed, mailed, or hand-delivered outside of callforentry.org intake program will not be considered. The Buffalo Bills Art Program Consultant, Stakeholders and/or Administrators reserve the right to conduct on-site or telephone interviews to clarify submission materials as needed.

No new artwork proposals are needed at the RFQ phase. Only semifinalists invited to the RFP phase will create artwork proposals for review. The selected Shortlisted Artists will be notified by May 2024.

Artist Statement/Team bio

• briefly introduce yourself/your team

Letter of Interest, up to 1-page

• Clearly describe your interest in the project and how you/your team will be able to contribute to its success.

• Articulate your interest and/or experience in public art design, fabrication &/or project collaboration.

• Summarize your experience in developing and/or executing creative projects of this scope in the public realm at stadiums, Buffalo NY (if applicable), Municipal buildings, and beyond (i.e. site-specific art installations, interactive and participatory artworks, multimedia projects, creative placemaking events, festivals, etc.).

Resume/CV

• Include a resume/CV for each member of your team, if applicable, (combine as a multi-page document for upload)

• Artist’s Experience: list your professional experience including any commissions,

residencies, touring, exhibitions, collaborations, and projects involving the community, and

work in the public sector.

• Education: list your educational background and training

• Experience working with organizations, institutions, developers, locally and beyond

References

• 3 professional references

Images...

The Magnum Foundation and the Inge Morath Estate are pleased to announce the 23rd annual Inge Morath Award, a $7,500 grant given to a woman or nonbinary photographer under the age of 30 to support the completion of a long-term documentary project. One finalist will also receive a $1,000 grant in support of their project.

Inge Morath was an Austrian-born photographer who was associated with Magnum Photos for nearly fifty years. After her death in 2002, the Inge Morath Foundation was established with a limited-term mission to manage Morath’s estate and facilitate the study and appreciation of her contribution to photography. With the closure of the research space in 2014, the Inge Morath archive was acquired by the Beinecke Library at Yale University, and a set of Morath’s master prints by the Yale University Art Gallery, where they are now available to scholars.

Recipient: One New York City-based artist working in performance art.
Grant: $10,000 to fund projects in performance, media, exhibition, and/or publication.
Requirement: Project must be completed within one year of receiving the award.

The artist selected for the inaugural 2024 grant will have the added requirement of being a mid or late-career artist, including past recipients of the Franklin Furnace FUND for Performance Art.

The selection panel will meet in July, 2024 and the award recipient will be publicly announced in October, 2024.

 Digital Art, Assemblage and Hand Cut Paper Collage II is an exhibition that will focus on the various forms of digital art, paper collage and 3D assemblage. The exhibition will be held at the Limner Gallery from June 20 - July 13, 2024. Entry is open to all forms of digital art, paper collage, assemblages and combinations thereof. The entry deadline is April 30, 2024. Online entry form is at http://www.slowart.com/prospectus/digital_paper.htm

To celebrate Pride Month, Arts Gowanus is partnering with Brooklyn Pride and The Old Stone House & Washington Park to present an outdoor art exhibit featuring works by Brooklyn-based LGBTQIA+ artists. We are currently accepting submissions for Pride: All Day, Every Day.
Artwork included in this exhibition should represent and celebrate what PRIDE means to the artist and/or Brooklyn's LGBTQIA+ community. Accepted artworks will be printed on vinyl banners and displayed on the fence surrounding The Old Stone House and Washington Park from June 1 – August 31, 2024.

This call is open to both emerging and established artists who work in any style or medium. This exhibition will also take place online, with the original version of each work available for sale on the Arts Gowanus website.

The banners displaying the artwork will be 36 x 36 inches and will include a short description of the artwork.

Join artist, Diana Buitrago, for a three-day intensive in-person landscape painting workshop. Explore the complexities of the plein air sketch by painting directly from nature.

Individuals can choose to paint either small sketches of different elements of the surrounding landscape or develop a multi-day, plein-air painting step by step. In order to understand and evoke the light effects outdoors, Diana will explain both the logical and practical tools available to the painter.

The workshop will focus on the elements and theory of planes based on John F. Carlson’s book; a crucial analysis for understanding the subsequential value organization of the landscape. The workshop will discuss composition, value, shape, design, drawing, color, atmospheric perspective and painting techniques. Diana will discuss how, why, and where to begin as she demonstrates the process of applying the paint from back to front. She will also review best practices, including materials, set-up options for working en plein-air and traveling with your painting materials. Diana will paint alongside the group and provide rounds of individual critiques.

This workshop welcomes all levels of experience.

In the event of rain, we will contact the students with an update, but we may still paint on location from a sheltered/covered spot. If the rain/storm is too extreme, we may delay the start time or decide to paint indoors at a location TBD to work on paintings based on our plein-air sketches or from master copies.

In 2021 Susan Eley Fine Art devoted its summer exhibitions to celebrating art students amidst the challenges of virtual learning. New Voices for the Twenties- Part I and Part II were exciting group shows that congratulated young artists on the completion of their schooling with an exhibition in NYC. For summer 2024 we want to revisit this theme with a student show. For this exhibition, SEFA is looking for paintings by students graduating from BFA and MFA programs in the Tri State area. Please see below for submission details and qualifications.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Students must be graduating from the 2024 class at a Tri State area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut) school receiving a BFA or MFA.

Submission through email.

If you're looking for a job and you like working with words, I'm teaching an online course in medical editing over eight Saturdays in May and June (May 4, 11, 18, 25, and June 1, 8, 15, 22), from 2 to 5 pm ET each day.

I've been a freelance medical editor for over a decade. It's been flexible, high-paying, and has supported my performance career and my family. I began this class as a favor to friends, and my students' success has kept me teaching.

If you're a meticulous reader and a clear, able writer, you'll do wonderfully. Editing experience or a background in science or medicine is a plus but not essential.

This course offers thorough instruction in copyediting, AMA style, digital markups, fact checking, and essential online tools, plus two full textbooks and an extensive course packet. You'll also receive individual feedback on your edits, a roadmap to getting started in the field, and ongoing support after the class ends.

The class costs $500 and will be capped at 15 students. Many students find work as freelancers or staff editors, and my class is recommended by editorial directors at several medical communications agencies as well as by Metroproof, a major staffing agency for editors in NYC.

Check out my website for details or email me to connect. We can also chat by phone if you like. I'm happy to help you figure out if this class is right for you!

The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts has put out a call for photographers to participate in a worldwide photography competition, sponsored by the Tampa International Airport and Visit Tampa Bay. Winners are selected by a jury knowledgeable of art and photography. Winning submissions will be notified by May 23. The top entries will be exhibited at The Tampa International Airport from June 25 - August 25. Images will be judged on originality, technical excellence, composition, overall impact, artistic merit, and as otherwise determined by the judges. For each category, three winners will be selected. An overall Best in Competition winner will be selected from all submitted photographs for a grand cash prize. Each winning submission will be printed for an exhibition at the Tampa International Airport. Note about 2024 competition: There will be NO EXTENSION to the submission deadline. All photos must be submitted by May 5, 2024.

The FLORIDA MUSEUM of PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS is a museum dedicated to exhibiting important photographic art as central to contemporary life and culture. FMoPA collects, preserves, and exhibits historic and contemporary works by nationally and internationally known photographic artists. FMoPA also enriches the community by operating outreach programs to educate children and adults.