OV-CAOS Ottawa Valley Community Arts

Is this for me?

Pop Up Art exhibitions are curated from the perspective of community arts practice.

This means that our goal is to enable as many people as possible to have a positive
and accessible experience with art, either as an art-maker or as someone experiencing art made by others. Sometimes these two ways are experienced at the same time!

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’re considering preparing a proposal to create an art piece for one of the Pop Up Art exhibitions.

You don’t have to consider yourself an artist to make artwork for a Pop Up Art exhibition

The term artist is most often used in the context of publicly exhibiting the artwork that one creates, however you don’t have to consider yourself an artist to make artwork for a Pop Up Art exhibition. You may feel more like a maker or crafter or creative person, but you do have to pull together a proposal, so here are some tips to help you do that.

Proposal Guidelines

Concept Sketch

We ask for a sketch to help us gain a better understanding of how your piece might look when completed. The sketch does not have to be perfect and your drawing ability will not be judged.

Written Description

While the concept sketch gives us an idea of how your piece will look when completed, the written description focuses more on the concept of your piece. It explains why you are inspired to create it and what you wish to share with the public.

For each exhibition, we provide some questions to help you construct the concept for your proposed artwork. You may choose to answer all or some of the questions in your written description, or you may choose to use the questions as a general guide and not answer them directly. However you choose to prepare your description is fine with us, we just need to get a clear sense of your ideas.
Please limit your word count to 300 words. Less is more.

Bio and Resumé

An artist biography is a written statement about you as an artist, maker or creative person. You may include information about why you create artwork, what inspires you, what medium(s) you choose to work in and how you came to be an artist/maker in the Ottawa Valley.

If you do not have a resume or don’t want to include it, you can also list some of your current or recent art-related activities such as exhibitions, workshops, teaching, creative projects and other related endeavours.

Supporting Documents

Support materials help us to get to know you and your work better. Support materials can be anything you have created that will help the jurors to understand your artistic style. Depending on what you are planning to create, your support materials could include a poem, music, quilting, painting, drawing, woodwork, pottery, land art. The most important thing is that you share with us something that has been created by you.

Images of past work

If you are already in the habit of documenting your artwork, please select three examples that are most similar to what you plan to create. If you’re planning to make something entirely new, choose samples that best demonstrate your artistic style.

If you are not in the habit of documenting your creations, start now! You can use your phone or home camera, but make sure that you have the resolution set to high.

Still not sure… Contact Anya for help

Don’t let hesitation stop you from participating. Anya is here to help! Send her an email at anya@ov-caos.org with your questions or give her a call at 613-633-1236.