Call for Artists - We Are the Sky: A GOCA Collaboratory

Please complete this form no later than January 28, 2024 to share information about your proposed contribution, which may include but are not limited to visual, performing, literary, or other creative practices that can be exhibition objects, interactive experiences, and/or discrete happenings.

Note that this is a proposal, so do not feel your submission needs to be fully formed at this time.

We will be in touch by February 16, 2024, but please feel free to email Gallery Director and Curator Joy Armstrong at jarmstr3@uccs.edu with any questions in the meantime.

About the exhibition:
Inclusive of a wide variety of expressive media, this exhibition and related programming are inspired by — but not about — Colorado Springs artist Starr Kempf (1917 – 1995).

Kempf’s large scale public (and sometimes kinetic) sculptures at his home and studio were a landmark in Cheyenne Canyon for locals and tourists alike, three of which have been on the grounds of the Ent Center for the Arts since the building’s opening in 2018.

What this exhibition is about are themes present throughout Kempf’s work and life that remain relevant to contemporary artists and residents of the Pikes Peak region with focus on mental health and wellness, human connection with others or to the natural world, and solutions-based innovation through the arts.

The objectives of this GOCA program are multifold and include:

Expanding our creative community to elevate new voices and strengthen connections;
Investigating the power of creative engagement for community coalescence and identity;
Art as preventative and therapeutic healthcare for both individuals and society, and;
Collaboration and experimentation to challenge artists and audiences alike.

The title of this project alludes to no-holds-barred blue sky thinking, the steady sky of self upon which the meteorological phenomena of events and emotions arrive and depart with impermanence, and the bonds of shared experience but with acknowledgement that the ecosystems of our lives are uniquely individual.

It is a COLLABORATORY, with unexpected collaborations and/or solo experimentations encouraged.

Venues outside the Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery of Contemporary Art at the Ent Center for the Arts are under consideration and may include the Sheppard Project Space, other indoor or outdoor Ent Center for the Arts sites, and/or UCCS Downtown.

All participants will receive a small stipend and will have the opportunity to apply for additional small grants to help make new work possible.

Submissions from creators that are new to the region and/or have little to no exhibition experience are very welcome!

Entries will be curated based on novelty of concept or approach, alignment with themes, and ability to spark dialogue.