Art Calls Acts of Care: Nurturing the Present, Shaping the Future
Opportunity Description
International Deadline: May 21, 2025 – Cultivating, tending, tracking, nurturing, repairing, and maintaining. All are words and actions that conjure the love and attention – and the worries and struggles – that go into care, whether for ourselves, others, our families, and our communities.
Building from a rich feminist art history centered around a politics of care (e.g. Wages for Housework, Maintenance Art, and Mother Art, c. 1970s), this exhibition defines care expansively while taking it as the base of our collective life. From child rearing to mobilizing a grassroots social movement, to care for someone or something is to imagine and invest in the present for the sake of a better future, however big or banal.
This exhibition also recognizes the gendered, ableist, classed, and racialized terms of care, and the often-invisible nature of care work as work. As such, this exhibition gives space to see and explore different experiences and interpretations of care, including but not limited to reproductive labor, affective labor, domestic work, care work, and/or any facet of social, political, cultural, and ecological caretaking.
The exhibition will be held from July 12 to August 16, 2025 at Woman Made Gallery, 1332 S. Halsted St., Chicago, IL 60607.
JUROR
Kristen Carter is an assistant professor of art history at Florida Southern College. She holds a PhD in modern and contemporary art from the University of British Columbia and a BA in art history from DePaul University. Her research concerns different modes of relationality, care, and institutional critique with an emphasis on artistic praxis and pedagogy in the 1960s and 1970s. She has presented and published on a range of topics, including performance, body art, and dance, histories of art and pedagogy in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, and the changing relationship between art and politics. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the University of British Columbia and the Getty Research Institute.
Committed to collaborative and inclusive pedagogy, Carter serves on the College Art Association’s Education Committee, advocating for undergraduate research and innovative teaching.
ELIGIBILITY
Woman Made Gallery is a space for women and nonbinary artists, including trans women and femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer artists. We welcome art from women and non-binary artists from our local community, regionally based, and around the world.
Due to wall size restrictions, artworks must be no larger than 6’ horizontally and under 75 pounds in weight, unless delivered to and picked up from our gallery by the artist. Artists may be additionally responsible for the installation of oversized works.
New media artworks are eligible. To be considered, artists must submit a sample .mp4 or URL under 10 mins for purposes of consideration. For exhibition, WMG requires a digital transfer (Google Drive, Vimeo downloads, WeTransfer) as well as a USB formatted in .mp4 file format delivered to the gallery. WMG can provide a limited number of screens and projectors with basic speakers. All other new media needs are the responsibility of the artist.
ENTRY FEE
The entry fee is $35. Each entry requires a minimum of one artwork, though up to three artworks may be considered per submission. Entry fees are non-refundable.
WMG offers up to 30 fee waivers per exhibition. To acknowledge the historic inequities of wealth distribution, they are mainly reserved for ALAANA/BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+.
Notification: May 30, 2025.
SALES
Accepted work may be listed for sale or be not for sale (NFS). WMG will retain a 40% commission on sold works.
DATES
- Exhibition Dates: July 12 – August 16, 2025
- Opening Reception: Saturday, July 12 from 4 to 7 PM CST
- Artist Walkthrough: Saturday, August 16 from 2 to 4 PM CST
- First Entry Due Date: May 14, 2025, 11:59 PM CST
- Extended Due Date : May 21, 2025, 11:59 PM CST
- Notification: May 30, 2025
About:
Woman Made Gallery is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization founded in 1992. Its goal is to cultivate, promote and support the work of female-identified artists by providing exhibition opportunities, professional development, and public programs that invite discussion about what feminism means today. More than 8,000 women artists have exhibited their work since WMG was established. WMG welcomes the participation of people of all gender expressions and orientations as artists and program participants, members and supporters.
Woman Made Gallery
1332 S. Halsted St.
Chicago, IL 60607.
t: (312)-738-0400
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