Call for Submissions
The University of Pittsburgh announced a call for submissions open to artists of Western Pennsylvania and to Pitt students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Reproductions of original works will be printed onto mesh canvas panels to be exhibited outdoors in public areas of the University’s Pittsburgh Campus; the exhibition will also travel to other Pitt campuses. Approximately 30 works will be selected for display.
In addition to the physical installation, the exhibition will feature short video performances shown on campus digital screens and on the exhibition website. This exhibition is part of a series of initiatives by the University of Pittsburgh to recognize and celebrate the diversity of our campuses and, more particularly, the value of Black lives and Black art.
‘Black Lives Matter’ as a slogan is the culmination of hundreds of years of effort, fighting, resilience, and sacrifice on the part of Black leaders, activists, trailblazers, and visionaries. Following the tradition of the United States’ Civil Rights Movement, it is the call demanding that everyone, from our government to our neighbors, recognize the patterns of structural harms and inequity that target Black people on a social, economic, and political level.
This exhibition will recognize the work done and the work still left to do to achieve true equity: to not only honor the lives we have lost and affirm that Black lives do indeed matter, but also to celebrate and spotlight the Black experience as essential to our community’s future. Works might retrieve the lessons learned from past generations about love, family, and supporting one another; reflect on breaking cycles of generational trauma and how to create new and just futures; respond to the contemporary movement and how it has changed the public consciousness; and remind the world that outside of death, there is Black life.
Because mattering is the minimum.
More information and the online submission form visit pi.tt/dontlookaway
Story and Photo Credit: University of Pittsburgh Office of Diversity and Inclusion
