Call for Artists: “Off the Page” at the Northern Arizona Book Festival

 

Looking for artists in all media willing to collaborate

$1K stipend for each selected artist

Application deadline: Nov. 28, 2021

 

The Northern Arizona Book Festival (NOAZBF) is looking for up to 5 artists or writers of any discipline to produce original, collaborative, intermedia performance or artwork as part of the new series of “Off the Page” events at the NOAZBF in April 2022!

 

Selected artists are invited to consider and experiment with a variety of disciplines in this collaboration so long as the literary arts have a role in the final artwork or performance. The form the artwork takes is up to the selected artists involved: for example, it could be an avant-garde opera, performance art, a community-based installation, an immersive theatrical environment, dance with poetic voiceover, or a film with live music; we are open to a wide assortment of artforms and media, encouraging forms that are groundbreaking or unique.

 

Applying to the Call

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Up to 5 selected artists will be provided with $1,000 stipends each to support their work on the project, with a limited amount of additional funding available for project materials and supplies. Artists working in any genre or medium or across multiple disciplines are welcome to apply so long as they live in the Colorado Plateau. To apply, email a resume or CV, a brief portfolio of up to 5 items, and a cover letter no more than one page in length which expresses one’s enthusiasm about the project as well as one’s collaborative approach. Please submit using this Google Forms link.

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The deadline to apply is November 28. Submitting artists should receive a response in December. 

 

Guidelines and Vision

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This year’s “Off the Page” events aim to bring more community engagement for the literary arts by finding intersections with other artistic media and performance genres, creating innovative programs that promote collaboration, experimentation, and timely engagement with our community’s needs. We hope this commission acts as an incubator to inspire collaborating artists to take risk and expand their artistic practice. We seek artists who want to stretch their boundaries, collaborate with others, go outside their disciplines, and interact with new audiences. We entrust the selected artists to decide details of the project organically during the collaborative process. Since 1997, the NOAZBF has fostered literary community through the creation, publication, showcase, and investigation of literary arts in Northern Arizona and the Colorado Plateau. 

 

Commitments

 

The event must be ready to debut in Coconino County during the first weekend of April 2022 for the book festival. Each artist should plan on working on the project from December through April; time commitment may vary as the project unfolds. The NOAZBF board will provide direction, guidance, and administrative support to facilitate the collaboration, including monthly check-ins on progress. No one person will be designated as the “director” or “producer” at the outset: if those roles are thought necessary, then such assignations must be worked out over the course of the project in agreement with the artists involved. Other details will be entrusted to the selected artists to decide collectively during the collaboration process. Selected artists may choose to involve other artists, actors, writers, technicians, and collaborators as the project evolves.

 

Eligibility

 

Artists must reside in the Colorado Plateau. Artists working in any genre or media or across multiple disciplines are invited to apply, including artists who want to apply as small teams—we welcome those practicing the literary arts, music, performance art, improv, visual art, theater arts, drag, aerialists, clown and circus arts, pottery, sculpture, film and video, textiles, design, dance or choreography, architecture, digital and new media, as well other art forms not mentioned above. The selection committee will look to find artists that reflect the diversity of the communities in the Colorado Plateau, engage in a variety of artistic media or genres, are at different stages of their artistic careers, and whose work expresses interests in a variety of approaches or subject matter.

 

For more information, contact: Will Cordeiro at OffthePageNOAZBF@gmail.com

 

Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP): This program is made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act as well as generous support from AZ Humanities.