Christoph Gielen surveys Arizona’s Florence State Prison from a helicopter, 2010. Photo by Nina Gielen. (Read Christoph Gielen’s dispatch here.)
Deadline: September 2, 2014
Submit to: editorial@creativetime.org
Creative Time Reports seeks proposals that offer incisive, provocative and unflinching perspectives on the most challenging issues of our times. We believe that artists play a crucial role as thought leaders in society and are uniquely capable of inspiring and encouraging a more engaged and informed public, whether they are addressing elections or climate change, censorship or immigration, protest movements or politically motivated violence. We believe in the importance of highlighting cultural producers’ distinctive viewpoints on world events and urgent issues of social justice to ensure a livelier, more nuanced and more imaginative public debate. We distribute this content to the public and media free of charge.
Reflecting the diversity of approaches and subjects undertaken by Creative Time Reports contributors, such pieces might take the form of photo-essays, videos, op-eds or poems (to name just a few examples), and might examine subjects including climate change, migration, prisons, labor, race or gender (among many others).
The artist selected for the Feature* will receive a $1000 honorarium; the artist selected for the Dispatch** will be provided with $300.
In addition to these fees, both commission recipients will receive:
• Three to six months of editorial support
• Opportunity for co-publication with a major media outlet
• Opportunity to develop a public conversation with artists, journalists, activists or critics, on themes related to the Feature or Dispatch
• Substantial publicity, in the form of social media and direct outreach
Artist proposals will be reviewed relative to the following criteria:
• Quality of the proposal and prior work
• Fit for Creative Time Reports
• Timeliness with regard to ongoing political crises and debates
• Feasibility of the proposal
Your proposal should consist of:
• A pitch for your Feature or Dispatch (two to three paragraphs)
• A website, set of URLs or attachment (no larger than 10MB) showing examples of your previous work
We encourage you to peruse the variety of pieces published on Creative Time Reports for a better sense of fit.
We will closely consider all proposals. Even if yours is not selected as a Feature or Dispatch for this open call, we will review it for consideration as a regular commission. Please also note that we may suggest that a proposed Feature would be more appropriate as a Dispatch, or vice versa.
*Features are substantial in length (e.g. videos with 5-minute-plus durations, texts of 2,000-plus words or selections of 20+ photos) and require significant support for their production.
**Dispatches are considerably shorter and involve less support for their production and presentation than Features. They are pegged to current events and timely political issues, and are often—but not always—dispatches from a specific location, whether domestic or international.
Questions? Please email us at editorial@creativetime.org.
The Editors