Art is a Natural Bridge: Connecting art and environmental activism is an juried art exhibition and film festival at MidMountain Retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains, benefiting POWHR, Artivism VA, and MidMountain.
For too long exploitative extraction of natural resources has devastated the mountains of Appalachia that many artists call home. And in many cases, that devastation turned artists into activists.
In this show we will highlight works related to the constant connection between our natural world and the choices we must make to protect it, locally and globally. Artists working in 2-D, 3-D, and film/video media are invited to interpret that theme broadly while submitting work for consideration. Best in Show of 2-D, 3-D, and Film/Video submissions as well as People’s Choice will be awarded a complimentary two-night residency at the River Room at MidMountain Retreat.
Accepted submissions will be exhibited in-person at MidMountain from April 13th through June 16th and online, with 85% of purchase price of sold pieces to artists. Flat art will be displayed at MidMountain in our main gallery room and inside our Post Office Community Center. Display opportunities indoors and outdoors for sculptural works of all sizes!
A selection of accepted film and video works will also be screened in the Gallery or outdoors as part of a May 25 film festival, with reception for filmmakers, and a free community screening of the award-winning film King Coal.
Accepted artists will also be invited to vend outdoors during opening and closing receptions on April 13 and June 16, keeping all personal proceeds. More information about the display areas and delivery/return logistics available below.
All submitted applications will be reviewed blind by multiple members of the jury and rated on a 10 point scale, 5 for applicability to the theme and 5 for artistic merit. The top rated 2-D, 3-D, and film/video submissions as determined by the jury will be awarded “Best in Show.” People’s Choice will be awarded based on in-person voting during the opening reception!
Meet our jury:
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily, where he helps frame the news of the day for readers. He was previously at BuzzFeed News and holds a degree in international relations from Michigan State University.
Dan Ideozu
Dan (they/them) is the Partnerships Manager at POWHR. They live in Newport, Virginia and they are originally from Northeast Ohio bordering Central Appalachia. Throughout their life they have found joy and community by participating in mutual aid, food justice work, housing programs and climate activism. They also find joy in fiber arts, making music and getting their hands in the dirt.
Chad Clark
Chad Clark is founder, singer and songwriter of the Washington, DC band/art collective Beauty Pill as well as MidMountain board member. Recent works include the Blue Period anthology and the reissue of Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are. Beauty Pill is currently at work on a new project: an album co-produced by legendary Brazilian innovator Arto Lindsay.
Laura Saunders
Laura Saunders Laura is a photographer and filmmaker working in southern Arizona and Southwest Virginia. She graduated with distinction from the Documentary Photography & Photojournalism Masters Program at The London College of Communication in 2011. Her work focuses on community, resistance and extraction in the Appalachian region where she grew up, as well as stories looking at the historical understanding of forced migration, for-profit detention and how these impact the growing industry of US border militarization. Her work has been exhibited in the UK + US, with organizations including the Bronx Documentary Center and Looking at Appalachia and published with The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Intercept, Patagonia, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, High Country News, ProPublica, and Politico, among others.
Monica Stroik
Monica Stroik is a multimedia artist from the mid-Atlantic United States, working in painting, silversmithing, ceramics, printmaking, textiles, encaustics, photography, live performance in voice and instrumentation, and video. She has an MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has been featured in local galleries, international embassies, and commissioned for private collections as well as for large institutional installations. For the past ten years she has provided visual design and implementation of video for live performances in venues ranging from small rock clubs, to art galleries, to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Mariam Baksh
Mariam Baksh is a journalist covering the government’s relationship with the tech industry and has been published in The Washington Post, The American Prospect, Marketplace Public Radio and elsewhere.She started her professional life as a photojournalist, wanting to use a penchant for the visual arts in service of the public. A longtime advocate for international equity and environmental preservation, Mariam is now working on a book of observations in navigating U.S. political dynamics through her perspective as an immigrant from the global south.
Andrea (River) Peterson
Andrea (River) Peterson is an artist, musician, and writer with a thirst to convey stories about human perseverance, the nature of justice, and the healing power of outdoor spaces. They curate MidMountain, an arts and agricultural nonprofit and retreat space located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Rockbridge County, Virginia. A former staffer at the Washington Post and major investigative nonprofits, Peterson has an extensive research and publication history that also includes Slate, Politico, MSNBC, and other outlets.
Sarah Murphy
Sarah Murphy is an artist and activist. A James Madison University B.F.A graduate with concentrations in graphic design and photography, her work has been accepted to exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio as well as accepted to be displayed and exhibited in Lithuania, Latvia, Georgia, and Germany. Five years ago she completed a 1,000 mile ride along the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline Route, a ride that was picked up by the Associated Press coming out of Fayetteville, NC and would spread through media like The NY Times, Washington Post and all the way to China and Taiwan.
Christine Sajecki
Christine Sajecki is an encaustic painter recently moved to Lexington, Virginia from Baltimore, and now maintains her studio practice at Thunder BRidge just down the way. Her paintings have been included in many juried and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, and appears in print in several albums, periodicals, books of poetry and fiction. She takes environmental pollution and injustice extremely personally.
Rob Humphreys
Rob Humphreys, studied painting and printmaking at VCU. He is a painter and maker of objects, in a wide variety of mediums. He splits his time between Roanoke and Paint Bank, Virginia.
Ellie Riley
Ellie Riley is an artist who graduated from the University of Georgia in 2006 with a BA in Art Education with studio concentrations in ceramics, painting and jewelry. She taught middle school art for a few years before transitioning into a career in the horse industry. Though making art is more a hobby now, helping others make the connection that art is relevant and integral in every facet of lifelong learning is still a passion.
Timeline:
February 16: Open call launches.
March 15: Open call closes.
March 31: Deadline for artist notification.
April 1-April 13: Art delivery and installation.
April 13: Opening Reception.
May date TBA: Film Festival with King Coal screening
June 16: Closing Reception.
June 30: Deadline for art pick up/return ship out.
About the partnering organizations:
MidMountain is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, collective and project in constant growth that believes in the power of people to reclaim space and caring for their neighbors. MidMountain operates from a five-acre retreat on the James River while organizing professional, creative development and artistic programming while seeking community input about interpreting the property’s past—which includes ties to colonization and human bondage.
Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) is an interstate coalition representing individuals and groups from Virginia and West Virginia dedicated to protecting water, land, and communities from harms caused by the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure, including the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).
Artivism VA is creating a supported connection between Virginia artists & activists working for environmental justice with strategy, messaging, event & campaign production, music, spoken word, visual design, sound, videography & photography.
Spaces available for display:
MidMountain Gallery
2D spaces
Wall A 57”x60”
Wall B 74”x60”
Wall C 63”x60”
Wall D 40”x60”
Wall E 83”x42”
Wall F 13”x60”
Wall G 24”x60”
Multimedia
3D spaces
1 58”x15” shelf
8 15”x15” shelves
Post Office Community Center
Non-climate controlled 18’x28’ interior room with 10' high ceilings, including ample room for large scale pieces on walls and freestanding sculpture.
Exterior Space
Nearly five acres with options to feature free standing sculpture on the lawn next to including on the main house, in the center of a budding botanical labyrinth, next to the Post Office Community Center, and more. Click here to find it on Google Maps.
Logistics:
2-D work must be wired, ready to hang upon delivery.
Submission form requires submission of one image (max size 10MB) or link to larger files (such as video), plus artist statement for review by jury as well as basic contact information.
Maximum 180 minute runtime for film/video submissions. Feature, short, and documentary films as well as video art submissions encouraged! Final accepted works to be submitted and displayed/screened digitally.
Accepted physical works must be original to the artist (not created with the use of Artificial Intelligence) and identified with Artist Name, Title, Media and Price or Not For Sale (NFS).
