About
Momentum
Momentum: Art Doesn’t Stand Still
Momentum: Art Doesn’t Stand Still is an annual exhibition that features Oklahoma artists 30 years and younger, working in all media including 2-D and 3-D art, film, installations, performance and more. Held each year in Oklahoma City in March and Tulsa in October, the exhibition has continually presented a diversified look at emerging artistic talent in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition is looking for Oklahoma artists age 30 and younger to exhibit their work in a fun and exciting atmosphere featuring interactive art and live bands. The seventh annual Momentum Tulsa will be Saturday, October 9 at Living Arts, 307 E. Brady, Tulsa. Performance artists, filmmakers, 2D and 3D artists are encouraged to submit up to three entries. Submissions must have been created in the last two years and can not have been included in previous Momentum’s. More information at 405-879-2400. All submissions should be made through the online entry form. Deadline for entry is September 13, 2010 at 5:00 pm.
Click for online entry form.
CURATORS
Shannon Fitzgerald is an independent curator. She was Chief Curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis from 2000-2007, and curated the thematic group exhibitions Staging: Janieta Eyre, Julie Moos, Zwelethu Mthethwa (2002) and co-curated with Tumelo Mosaka the Contemporary's inaugural and traveling exhibition A Fiction of Authenticity: Contemporary Africa Abroad (2003). She has curated solo exhibitions of new work by international artists: Larry Krone, Michael Paul Britto, Ruby Osorio, Dzine, Keith Piper, Yun-Fei Ji, Polly Apfelbaum, William Pope.L, and Michael Lin, among others.
She received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and a MA in Art History and Museum Studies from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Prior to moving to St. Louis, Fitzgerald worked at the Institute of Visual Arts (inova), University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Fitzgerald recently relocated to Oklahoma City.
Sarah Jesse (Tulsa, OK) is a writer and educator working as the Bernson Director of Education and Public Programs at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa. Jesse was selected as the Momentum Tulsa Emerging Curator.
PRIZES
Over $1,000 in cash prizes! Categories include Curator’s Choice, Pushing the Boundaries, and a Viewer’s Choice, voted on during the event, in both Visual Art and Performance Categories.
MOMENTUM MARKET
Momentum Tulsa will include an area called “Momentum Market” for additional original works that are priced $30 and under. All media are accepted. Artists accepted into Momentum Tulsa should bring items for the Market when delivering accepted works, along with any special display materials, if needed. Space is limited so not all work will be displayed at once.
QUESTIONS/MORE INFO
Contact Sarah McElroy at 405-879-2400.
Click for online entry form.
SCHEDULE
September 13, 5:00 pm: Deadline for entry
September 23 by 5:00 pm: Artist notifications
October 1, noon-3:00 pm and October 2, noon-3:00 pm: Delivery of selected artworks and Momentum Market pieces to Living Arts, 307 E. Brady, Tulsa. OVAC reserves the right to refuse any works that are not presentation-ready or that differ from the original submission. Curators will examine the work after its delivery.
October 9, 8:00-Midnight: MOMENTUM TULSA
Through October 24: Momentum Gallery Hours
October 24, 1-4:00 pm: Pick-up and deinstallation of ALL artwork
Visit the Momentum event page for more information about the event.
Frequently Asked Questions about Momentum Selection Process:
Q: What do curators do?
A: There is always more artwork than there is space. So, we recruit opinionated, arts-educated people to select what they consider the best work. No committee members or OVAC staff are involved in the decision making so that the curators can look at the artwork without influence. Of course, this process is based on subjective judgments about the quality of artwork. The decisions must be subjective because it's based on personal opinions about what makes good work. The curators always spend time with the work – looking at it and trying to understand it. Even artwork that one person loves might not resonate with another person.
Q: Who are the curators?
A: We always have different guest curators in order to get different perspectives. The volunteer committee tries to recruit people who are artists or active curators.
Q: What tips do you have to increase my chances of being selected?
A: Some tangible things that help curators pick art could include: consider your presentation such as framing and matting your work professionally. Is there anything that distracts from your work such as an over-sized signature or unfinished edges? Is your canvas stretched taut and even?
Less tangible reasons why curators pick artwork: expressing a clear vision, comprehensible design elements, careful consideration of materials for concept, scale appropriate to idea, and original concepts or experimentation.
Get tips for creating stronger submissions in this post on the OVAC blog.
Q: Can I get specific comments on my work?
A: Because the curators have such limited time, we are not able to give detailed comments to artists who enter. We do encourage you to get feedback anywhere you can. Galleries, friends, other artists are great places to get feedback about your work and to see if you are communicating your ideas and concepts effectively.
Q: How did Momentum begin?
A: The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition is a statewide non-profit organization that was created just to support artists. As one way to help and reward young artists, OVAC started Momentum in 2002 in Oklahoma City and in 2004 in Tulsa . A committee of volunteers helps to plan the event. The committee is made up of young artists and professionals who give their time to make the event happen. If you are interested in being involved in planning Momentum, you can email your interest to Julia at director@ovac-ok.org. Momentum does cost money to put together and funds come from financial sponsors, ticket sales, percentages of art sales and grant money raised by OVAC.
Q: Why does this exhibition have an age limit of 30 years old?
A: This exhibition was created specifically to promote and bring together young artists. The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition has programs that support artists at many different stages of their careers-- from funding to exhibits. It is important to us that our programs help artists as they are getting started, restarted, or continuing already successful careers. We also consider it important that our programs do not duplicate things other organizations are doing. Thus, we do not put together exhibitions unless they fill a completely different need.
Momentum is intended to help young artists in a way they were not supported before this exhibition. Knowing that we needed to clearly communicate who the event was trying to reach, we defined an age limit—less than 30 years old (later changed to 30 and under). By setting a specific age, we avoided confusion of what explains a "young" artist for this event.
We have other programs that provide visibility and funding for artists of all ages, emerging and established, throughout the year. If you aren't eligible for Momentum, please look at our other exhibitions: VisionMakers, Art 365, and Oklahoma Biennial, funding sources: grants and fellowships, and other programs for promoting artists: Art Focus Oklahoma, the Virtual Gallery, and Art Studio Tour. Information about submitting to any of these exhibitions can be found using the links to the left.