Posted on May 19, 2014
The visual arts committee of the South Arkansas Arts Center is currently accepting submissions for the 2014 Juried Art Competition. Entry deadline for all 2-D and 3-D Fine Art Media is May 28 with acceptance notifications on June 4. Dayton Castleman, Museum Manager for 21c Museum inside the 21c Museum Hotel Bentonville in northwest Arkansas, is the Juror for the 2014 competition. The competition is sponsored by Smackover State Bank.
Castleman is a multi-media artist, an educator, and manages the 21c Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. A New Orleans native, Dayton received his BA in Art from Belhaven University and his MFA in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has taught as Assistant Professor of Art in sculpture at Trinity Christian College, and as a Museum Educator at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. He has lectured and exhibited his artwork in museums and galleries throughout the United States and in Europe.
When asked what he looks for while judging a competition, he said,? I enjoy well-crafted artwork, but I see craft as a means to an end. I favor work that has pretty robust conceptual underpinnings, and work that suggests a knowledge of art history. Art is a way of engaging in an ongoing international conversation, and I enjoy work that embodies an awareness of that ?larger? cultural dialogue. I?m not so much concerned with whether art is easily digestible to the viewer, but with whether it demonstrates an allusiveness and maturity that creates intrigue and requires deep reading and engagement.?
Over $2000 in prize money will be awarded with one piece from the competition to be purchased for SAAC's permanent art collection. The Annual Purchase Award is made possible through an endowment from the family of Wilma Riley in memory of her commitment to the arts, her community, and SAAC. All entries are $10 per submission. Artists may submit any number of entries by digital image, but a maximum of 3 entries can be accepted in the exhibit.
For more information about the competition, contact the SAAC office at (870) 862-5474. A full prospectus is available online at www.saac-arts.com."