Scholarship / Financial aid: a prize fund of £500 and rising

Date: 7-28 December 2013

Deadline: 5th November 2013

Open to: international artists and photographers 

Announcement follows

W-CA are proud to present the second juried exhibition of 2013, the focus of this open call exhibition is contemporary photographic responses to Landscape. In 2010 W-CA were asked to co-curate the Contemporary Art Society collection which was acquired in 2001 under the galleries ‘contemporary landscape collection policy.’
Worcester City Art Gallery has collected contemporary art for 150 years, building up an outstanding collection, particularly strong in landscapes. The Worcester City Museum collection, of which fine art is an important part alongside natural history, archaeology and social history, focuses on the shaping of the English landscape. Worcestershire’s landscape tells the story of England, from the geology of the Malvern Hills to the town planning ‘rape of Worcester’ which drove modern conservation movements. There have been two major pushes to purchase contemporary art: one between the opening of the current museum building in 1896 and the First World War; and the second at the turn of the 21st century. In the early 1900s, many paintings were purchased direct from the artists including favourites such as Chadding on Mounts Bay by Stanhope Forbes. From 1998-2003, Worcester was one of a small number of museum collections working with the Contemporary Art Society on the Special Collections Scheme. Paintings, photographs and film work were purchased from artists and galleries internationally for the Worcester collection through funding from the Arts Lottery and the Elmley Foundation.

Questions for participants: How is landscape as a genre represented in critical contemporary art? And does a collection of landscapes re-enforce stereotypical notions of non-progressive, conservative or figurative art practice in rural towns and provincial cities?

These are all questions W-CA asked themselves when we were asked to respond to the theme of the ‘Landscape.’ in 2010. However on viewing the collection, many of these questions seemed to answer themselves and a lot of these concerns are challenged by the collection itself.

The works in the collection are far more critical and context driven than simply a reflection of either a rural or urban landscape. They are as much about the interior as the exterior, they are environmentally political, they are socially political and they raise notions of identity.

For the W-CA Contemporary Landscape Photography Open we are looking for artists and photographers who explore the landscape in an interesting and thought provoking way. Entry is online and artworks will be selected by our excellent panel of selectors. The exhibition will take place in The Old Library Space at The City Museum and Art Gallery in Foregate Street Worcester from the 7th to 28th December 2013.