Call for Entries: Art at Strut

Magnet 20th Anniversary Art Show

Help us celebrate 20 years of visual arts.

When Magnet opened in 2003, a visual arts program began to showcase art which reflected and celebrated the overlapping communities we served. Later, when Magnet became part of Strut, this program continued and expanded to reflect our larger range of programs and people we reach! To celebrate 20 years of visual arts, we are looking for artists to submit one or two items for our most ambitious group show ever! Artists that are selected for the group show will have their piece exhibited on our gallery wall for the month of September and are invited to take part in our big Art Opening on September 8, 2023. Let’s celebrate 20 years together!

HERE’S HOW TO APPLY

Does your art empower and celebrate your queer community?

We’re calling for entries from LGBTQ+ artists who are passionate about what we do and want to share their work with our communities.

For this group show artists will have one or two pieces displayed depending on sizes of artwork and available space to hang the work.

Please submit your work using our form.

Submission deadline is April 15, 2023.

We encourage submissions from all types of artists. Those who have shown their work previously are welcome to apply.

Wall Art Only: art must be able to hang on our gallery wall. Items which require any kind of shelf or pedestal will not be accepted for this show. Work should be completed and ready to hang by the time of submission, no sketches nor drafts of future work will be reviewed for this show.

Artists selected to display their work will be notified by May 31, 2023, and will be invited to join us for the Art Opening Celebration on September 8th, 2023. No calls, please.


Apply Now

Black Queer Arts Program

Are you a Black Queer artist, painter, illustrator, comic book artist, zine maker, or photographer that would like to have your work featured and celebrated in the heart of the Castro?

San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Strut will be exhibiting the work of Black Queer Artists in 2023, and we are looking for queer Black visual artists to submit to have their art exhibited on our gallery wall for a month. Artists will be selected by local artists, Ajuan Mance and Serge Gay Jr., who will be hosting and curating the events that will be supporting the program.

We’re calling for entries from Black Queer artists who are excited about our mission of queer sexual health and wellness and want to share their work with our communities. Every show gets a launch party and is exhibited in our gallery for a month. Submit your work using our form below. Submission deadline is May 1, 2023.

We encourage submissions from Black artists from all over the Queer spectrum, (lesbian, trans, nonbinary, gay, pansexual, etc). Black artists who have shown their work before in our galleries are welcome to submit again.

WORDS FROM THE CURATORS:

AJUAN MANCE:

We seek art that reflects the rich diversity of Black queer experience and identity, and we encourage work that portrays the intersections that shape and define queer lives of African descent. While we welcome work that celebrates Black queerness and its people, we understand and acknowledge that Black art as complex as the community out of which it is produced; and some visual stories feel less like celebration and more like inquiry, reflection, or even struggle. Black queer representation can never be constrained by narrow concepts like “positive images” or “good role models,” though both have a role in the broad net of creative expression. We believe that more queer voices from more perspectives means that some art works will uplift and inspire, but some may, by necessity, force us to look back on experiences, ideas, events, or even individuals we would rather forget. There is beauty in Black queer joy, but also in the ways that we can look unflinchingly at portrayals of those moments in which survival is the greatest victory we can muster. Not all Black queer art will make its way into every queer gallery space, residency, or event series; but all Black artists and the lives we are living matter deeply. We thank you for your work, and we hope you will apply for this exhibition series. – Ajuan Mance

SERGE GAY JR.:

Storytelling is very important to me as a visual artist, even more important as a black queer voice, to mark my own experience. We need fair and yearly opportunities to display our Black Queer art, not as tokenized individuals in a white space or because it’s a trend, we need bigger commitments to the vital Black Artistic voice. We hope this art program at Strut helps to create that platform within the queer arts in San Francisco. Having representation and inclusion for unheard black queer artist is needed, often, black queer artist gets rejected from showing or displaying because someone may not understand or can’t relate to our stories, then automatically label it as unrelatable or not “Good” art. We as a city have a long way to go, to being that example of change. It’s crucial for our diverse queer storytellers to uphold and preserve that narrative before it gets washed out. Visual art creates connection, visual art brings viewpoints together, lets amplify the Black Queer artistic experience together. Black queer arts belong in San Francisco. I’m so honored and glad Strut is putting this together. We need to open doors for black queer artist to tell their own stories and given the opportunity to showcase our own and unique perspective. We want to focus on Black art before and after “Black History Month” is over. – Serge Gay Jr.

Please make sure to fill out every part of the form. Forms with missing sections will be disqualified.

Deadline is May 1, 2023.

If you are selected to take part, you must be present at your Art Opening, Art Openings will be the second Saturday of the month.

HERE’S HOW TO APPLY

We encourage submissions from all types of artists. Those who have shown their work previously are welcome to apply.

Wall Art Only: art must be able to hang on our gallery wall. Items which require any kind of shelf or pedestal will not be accepted for this show. Work should be completed and ready to hang by the time of submission, no sketches nor drafts of future work will be reviewed for this show.

Artists selected to display their work will be notified by the end of May 2023. No calls, please.


Apply Now

Show Us Your Stuff

Does your art, paintings, sculptures, photography empower and celebrate your community?

We’re calling for entries from artists who are passionate about what we do and want to share their work with our community. Every show gets a launch party and is exhibited in our gallery for a month. Email your submission by TBA including responses to all the questions below. We encourage submissions from all artists. Those who have shown their work before TBA are welcome to resubmit.

Artists selected to display their work will be notified by [date TBA]. No calls, please.

Deadline is [date TBA].

Guidelines:

  • Title: Tell us the proposed name of your art show, and any themes or tagline you’d like to use.
  • Artist statement: Describe your work, your vision for the type of art you want to be exhibited in our gallery, and why you want to show it at Strut.
  • Connection to SFAF: How does your art connect with us? Please give us a paragraph stating how your work supports or is connected to our mission to promote health and wellness of our community.
  • C.V.: Include details of your professional art experience if you have some, not mandatory.
  • Bio: Please describe yourself, where you are from, and your experience as an artist.
  • Contact details: Include a phone number and email address. We will notify you if your entry is accepted or not.
  • Work sample: Include 10 images of your artwork to be reviewed. If you have not made the art and want to make a special collection just for the Strut exhibition, please include samples from past exhibits, a detailed description of what the new work will be like and a few preview sketches. Images must be in jpg, png or pdf format and should be attached to the email. Please include the size of your art. If you would prefer, you can send CDs, photos, or copies of your portfolio (we cannot return any materials to you). Mail or drop off at Strut, 470 Castro Street San Francisco CA, 94114. Links to websites will not be considered.

To submit, fill out the form by [date TBA]. Please notify us by email if you’d like to mail or drop off your work instead.

For over two decades, Magnet’s art opening events have brought together community members in celebration of paintings, sculpture, photography, digital art and other forms of creative expression by LGBTQ artists.