Artist Submissions Due: Sunday, January 22, 5pm
Submission Website: asirecallher.artcall.org
Exhibition Opens: Friday, March 3, 2023, 6-9pm
Exhibition Dates: March 3 - May 6

Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo) will host a juried exhibition inspired by Anna Murray Douglass, Rosetta Douglass Sprague, and Annie Douglass. This is a call to artists of all media and creative practices to submit individual or collaborative works. This exhibition builds upon several other initiatives dedicated to the Douglass Women and it will constitute a collective effort to expand their legacy and inspire the community. As I Recall Her... is presented in partnership with collaborating organizations 540WMain, Inc. and Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, and will open in March, International Woman’s Month.

CALL FOR ART:
We invite submissions of all media related to, or inspired by, the Douglass Women. We welcome artworks that help expand public awareness of these figures within the Douglass family and those that creatively interpret their lives. We also encourage projects that highlight the stories and voices of other Black women who make significant, but overlooked, contributions to the world. We are especially interested in creative and challenging efforts to shift our collective memory, inspire new narratives, center Black women, offer alternative monuments, and invite a deeper understanding of our shared history. This call is NOT limited to portraits.

EXAMPLES:
Submissions could include, for example, written or audio recordings of spoken words inspired by these women. Or a photo essay that would offer insight to how these women continue to impact Rochester or beyond.

ARTIST SUBMISSION WEBSITE:
All submissions will be handled through this website: asirecallher.artcall.org

WHO SHOULD SUBMIT:
We welcome and encourage submissions by humans of all backgrounds, professions, and abilities. We especially encourage BIPOC artists and artists who identify as women. We will preference artworks that haven’t previously been exhibited publicly.

We encourage electronic media and video submissions, however they will be handled separately. If you have a media based artwork you’d like to submit please email it to: [email protected]

We also welcome and encourage augmented reality/virtual reality submissions and RoCo has some equipment for the public display of these projects. If you would like to submit a VR or AR artwork using this equipment please contact us.

This call is open to anyone residing in the Western & Central NY region (including Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse). Artists living beyond the region, please contact us before submitting.

If you have any other questions please contact us: [email protected] or 585-461-2222

IMPORTANT DATES:
Call for Art / Submissions Announced: Early November
Artist Submissions Due: Sunday January 22, 5pm
Artists Notified: January 31
Delivery of Artworks: February 20
Exhibition Opens: Friday, March 3, 2023, 6-9pm
Exhibition Dates: March 3 - May 6
Pick Up Dates: May 7-8
Jurors: Erica Mock & Quajay Donnell
Submission website: coming soon (RoCo handles this process through an external website)

CONTEXT, RELATED PROJECTS, AND ADDITIONAL READING:

The exhibition As I Recall Her… builds upon several projects dedicated to the Douglass Women and invites artists of all media to participate in honoring and expanding their legacy.

During Black History Month February 2022 540WMain, Inc. organized a public art project to pay homage to Anna Murray Douglass and Rosetta Douglass Sprague. This public art initiative was preceded by an online panel titled; The Douglass Women: Another Look at Anna Murray and Rosetta. The keynote speaker was Dr. Leigh Fought professor of history and author of the biography Women in the World of Douglass. Led by Project Organizer Quajay Donnell, this call for artists was dedicated to BIPOC Women Artists. LaShonda Davis and Lucy Ray were selected to paint Murals of the Douglass Women. Expanding on their public murals, Davis and Ray have each painted a large scale canvas which will be a central feature of the exhibition at RoCo alongside a wide range of artworks selected by the jurors. Read more about the mural artists below, and the public art project here. View the online panel here.

Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives has made several efforts to honor the Douglass Women including the recent placement of two headstones in Mt Hope Cemetery. Read more here.

Read Another Look at Anna, The Other Douglass by Rachel Y DeGuzman here.

View Shawn Dunwoody’s public artwork on the site of the Douglass Family home here.

Rosetta Douglass Sprague wrote the text Anna Murray-Douglass-My Mother as I Recall her read the full text here.

In 2018, Rochester Contemporary Art Center organized the exhibition No Soil Better: Art & The Living Legacy of Frederick Douglass. The exhibition featured new, contemporary monuments that commented on how Frederick Douglass has been memorialized and the importance of his legacy today. Learn more about the exhibition here.

ABOUT THE JURORS:

Erica Mock, originally from Ohio and now a resident of Rochester, NY, is the National Executive Director for (FDFI) Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, an anti-human trafficking and equity organization founded by the direct descendants of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. She works with administrators, teachers and community to develop a Douglass descendants legacy curriculum, which will be implemented in schools throughout the city, with future plans to bring it to schools and students overseas. Erica created the historic monuments project that now cover the graves of Anna Murray Douglass and Annie Douglass (Frederick’s first wife and mother of his five children and their ten year old daughter). Erica is the project manager for the Frederick Douglass International Airport Observatory Renovation for arts and education. Erica is honored to participate with FDFI Board members and Senior Advisors in planning for the “Frederick Douglass Museum and Center for Equality, Justice and Knowledge,” which will be a state of the art, international destination right here in Rochester.

Quajay Donnell is a Rochester, NY based photographer and writer whose most recent body of work focuses on street and public art. His work has been published in local and national publications, including The Washington Post. Donnell is a crew member and photographer for WALL\THERAPY and staff photographer for Roc Paint Division. His work was part of the Memorial Art Gallery’s 67th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition and he was the recipient of the 2020 George Eastman Museum Award for the Rochester Contemporary Art Center’s 30 Annual Members Exhibition. In addition to the recent group show with RoCo, St. John Fisher University hosted his first solo show, How I See It, in the Patricia O'Keefe Ross Gallery

ABOUT THE MURAL ARTISTS:

LaShonda Davis is a painter who creates artwork using colorful washes of acrylic paint. She focuses on a range of subjects, including nature, flowers, landscapes, portraits, and figure drawing. Davis completes large-scale art projects in the Northeast region, and operates from her studio in Upstate New York.

Lucy Ray is a painter, illustrator, muralist and photographer from Rochester, NY. She draws inspiration from Rochester's history in relation to her personal experiences growing up there. Lucy is a Roc Paint Division alum, and has worked on collaborative murals at city Rec-Centers and other community spaces.