MAKE YOUR MARK: Open Call to Vote in the Midterm Elections

With less than a month to the 2022 midterm elections, PLAN YOUR VOTE and Vote.org announce an open call for digital art designed to increase the number of young Americans who vote on or before November 8, 2022. Titled MAKE YOUR MARK, this new award aims to promote youth civic engagement by recognizing new creative talent, with the winning work featured in an upcoming issue of frieze magazine.

MAKE YOUR MARK is part of Vote Ready, Vote.org’s get-out-the-vote (GOTV) midterm campaign, where the organization aims to reach more than four million young voters and register more than one million new voters by November 8, 2022.

About the Open Call

MAKE YOUR MARK will be judged by a jury of three art world figures: Rashid Johnson (Artist), Isolde Brielmaier (Deputy Director, New Museum) and Casey Fremont (Executive Director, Art Production Fund).

Submissions are welcomed from emerging and aspiring artists and can take the form of a digital image incorporating the PLAN YOUR VOTE templates. Deadline for submissions is Monday, October 31, 2022.

‘In our last election cycle, we engaged over 70 renowned artists and partnered with 130 leading institutions, demonstrating how cultural capital is our creative community,’ said Christine Messineo, Director of Frieze, Americas and Executive Director of Plan Your Vote. ‘This year, we pass the paintbrush to a young generation of emerging and aspiring artists – our first-time voters, our students, our future visionaries to MAKE YOUR MARK. In the upcoming days, we want to activate our friends, our family and our community to check their registration, register, and vote. Our countdown begins!’

‘Young voters care about the direction of their local communities,’ added Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org. ‘Through this contest, young voters can speak to and motivate one another by using creativity to convey how some of the most consequential policies and decisions being made today are by local and state officials.’

Marilyn Minter, whose image was shared widely in PLAN YOUR VOTE 2020 campaign said: ‘Let’s hit the polls. Let’s bring together the creative community to do what we do best, communicate the crucial importance of civic engagement in the upcoming election. Democracy hangs by a thread.’

The winning submission will be displayed on Election Day on Vote.org, Frieze, Plan Your Vote channels, and via the accounts of supporting artists and institutions. The winning piece will also be shared via a full-page in frieze magazine. The first 30 submissions will receive an art catalogue from Taschen, a noted art publisher.

The contest is the second in a series of PLAN YOUR VOTE initiatives designed to reach voters through visual art. PLAN YOUR VOTE was hailed as the biggest arts initiative in the civic voting sphere since 2008, with over 130 participating organizations and 70 artists engaged throughout the country. Artists, including Michael Stipe, Sanford Biggers, Guerrilla Girls, Julie Mehretu, and Patti Smith, and arts institutions, including LACMA and the Guggenheim were engaged by the Vote.org / PLAN YOUR VOTE team to create nonpartisan voting-related artworks and to use their platforms to promote Vote.org’s voter tools and information ahead of the 2020 General Election. Artworks from 2020 can be viewed here.

For information on the contest, or to register to vote, verify registration or complete an absentee ballot, visit Planyourvote.org.

FURTHER INFORMATION

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