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. Visit the event page for more information about the Momentum event.

Momentum Tulsa 2012 Timeline
May 18, 5:00 pm: Emerging curator applications due
May 31: Emerging curator applicants notified
June 1, 5:00 pm: Momentum Spotlight artist proposals due
June 20: Momentum Spotlight artist applicants notified
July: Curators meet with Spotlight artists
August-September: Studio visits with Spotlight artists
September 5: Entry deadline for juried survey show
September 25: Juried survey show applicants notified
October 13: Momentum Tulsa opens

Curator
Raechell Smith is the chief curator and founding director of the H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute. She has organized one-person and thematic exhibitions for the Artspace featuring regional, national and international artists. Founded in 1999, the H&R Block Artspace is a dynamic contemporary art venue with a strong teaching mission. The Artspace has been recognized for excellence in architectural design and visual art programming within the region.

An advocate for artists and the visual arts, Smith has served as a consultant for numerous national and regional organizations and is a founding board member of The Charlotte Street Foundation, a Kansas City-based non-profit organization, which recognizes outstanding artists in Kansas City.

Additionally, Laura Reese will serve as Emerging Curator, working in mentorship with Smith. Reese is pursuing a BFA in Printmaking at the University of Oklahoma and has worked as a volunteer and intern for various organizations such as The Girlie Show, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, Femina Potens Art Gallery/FP Edge Artist Network (San Francisco), and the Norman Arts Council.

Momentum Tulsa 2012 Spotlight Artist Application
Application deadline: June 1, 2012, 5:00 pm
Honorarium: $2,000
Click to view details and application form.
The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition seeks proposals from Oklahoma artists 30 years of age and younger for Momentum Tulsa 2012 "Spotlight." Momentum is an interactive, multidisciplinary art event. Through Momentum Spotlight, three artists receive honoraria and curatorial guidance on a site-specific project or body of work.

Artists must be 30 years of age or younger and must be residents of Oklahoma during the project period. Proposals must be for the creation of new works. Artists working in all visual media are eligible. Artists must be available for installation and exhibition of work. Past Momentum Spotlight or Art 365 artists are not eligible.



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 things that help curators pick art could include: outstanding images of your artwork and good presentation (Does anything distract from your work such as distracting backgrounds, poor lighting, an over-sized signature or unfinished edges?).

Less tangible reasons why curators select artwork include things like: 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 such as Art 365, 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.

Questions
For questions, contact the OVAC office at 405-879-2400 or office@ovac-ok.org.