PLAYGROUND DETROIT is announcing a call for Metro Detroit-based artists to participate in the up-and-coming Michigan F.A.S.H Fest, organized by Founder/CEO Leslie Ann Pilling and Presence II Productions.  We have been graciously granted a 10 x10’ open air space at the festival. Our space is limited so the display will be tight: we want to see your most creative and innovative submissions to accurately represent Detroit’s young creative talent.

Two finalists will be chosen to display their work at the first annual F.A.S.H Fest 2012 event, which gives exposure for new and groundbreaking creators to other well-established fashion, art, and creative entrepreneurs of the world.  This event is a highly anticipated festival which will include a truly broad range of engaging activities and events to celebrate Detroit and Michigan talent. Festival partners and sponsors include: City of Birmingham, The Detroit Free Press, StyleLine Magazine, and the Detroit Creative Corridor Center.

To get a better insight on what F.A.S.H Fest is about we want to share with you the goal statement from CEO/Founder Leslie Ann Pilling as explained to PLAYGROUND DETROIT:

The main goal of Michigan F.A.S.H. Fest is to “Create, Collaborate, and Celebrate” Michigan Talent. We want to make Detroit a ‘go-to’ for international creatives such as fashion designers to show their latest collections and work. To bring together people to support each other and drive business to Michigan, especially the Metro Detroit area! Our tagline is, “Business supporting CREATIVE, CREATIVE showcasing Business!”

What is PLAYGROUND DETROIT looking for from artists?

We are keeping it open on this one.  Your work should be in some way, a visual representation of our personal mission: “To connect contemporary artists who represent Detroit’s talent in the visual art and music scene with exposure and collaboration opportunities in New York City, bridging the creative communities of Detroit and NYC.” We help to provide artists and musicians from both cities opportunities to exchange ideas and dialogue about the roles these cities hold in the creative world.

Also, keeping within F.A.S.H. Fest’s focus, your work should also have a connection to these concepts: Fashion, Art, Sound, & History. Detroit is a place we all know, about the ups and downs of its history and its present, but now it needs to be ‘re-seen and re-thought’ according to current trends and energy.  Think of something that stands alone and distinct like Detroit; it stands out and connects, but at the same time needs more wires, more attention.  For example, take this quote from art philosopher, Simon Critchley below:

Things which do not exist yet. This is the whole point– logic of the event– to focus on those things which do not yet exist in order to bring to nothing the things that are.”

Detroit exists, but a “New Detroit” is currently on the rise and needs to exist.  Don’t think of your submission as something already in Detroit, but a piece of work that could only exist from the absorbent energy created in Detroit.  A plant in the overgrown fields of Woodbridge…  A figure or life form only found roaming the overgrown homes that cover midtown and the east and west sides…  The distinct and towering architecture surrounding the downtown area- even the work being recently restored in Wayne State campus by famed architect Minoru Yamasaki.  Don’t leave out the 18th-century French colonized Belle Isle and its landscape of trails, observatory, and swim holes.

We look forward to something conceptual, which will only be seen as a new undiscovered thing, that will exist in the organic and man-made nature that surrounds Detroit.  If you have already made this, or have a concept in response to this call, this we want to see for PLAYGROUND DETROIT x F.A.S.H. Fest 2012.

-Joseph Jagos, Curator, PLAYGROUND DETROIT

Please submit online: SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL

After submitting online, PLEASE AGREE TO THE ARTIST WAIVER to complete your submission. 

Requirements and Timeline:

Here are our formal guidelines to ensure the best quality and timeliness for our decision and choices for the top two finalists.

1. Open call for concept submissions and portfolio work begins *June 1st*
2. Deadline for concept submissions and portfolio work *July 1st*
3. We will announce the semi-finalists, and then announce the two finalists. These two selected projects have until September 1st to execute their concept and design.
4. We encourage you to start working on your project at the semi-finalist stage before we announce the finalists so you have ample time to complete your work.
5. F.A.S.H. Fest is September 15th.  All work will be completed no less than two weeks prior on to event by September 1st.  This is for troubleshooting and space planning purposes so this deadline is strict.

Submissions should include:

1. Personal contact info
2. Past show history and/or CV
3. Personal Artist/Team Statement and/or Prior Experience  (this will not affect you much if you have no prior showing history.  We just want to know more about you)
4. Project Description/proposal coinciding with submission call concept. (1000 words or less, please include up to 5 sketches, small jpgs- max 750×750):
5. Team members/collaborators/volunteers information/names
6. Why does this project matter to you, us, or to the city?
7. 10 images of 5 different past/current works (2 angles of each unless a flat photo, print or painting etc..small jpgs- max 750×750)
8. Past work and new concept design will consist of painting, photography, large-scale sculpture, video, print work, sound design (not music or band based), and technology based work.

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