Gallery 4Culture

Gallery 4Culture has a forty-plus year history of presenting innovative and underrepresented artists and art forms in solo and small-group exhibitions.

1 What is Gallery 4Culture?

Gallery 4Culture showcases contemporary art, presenting the work of outstanding independent artists living in King County. Our 1,000-square-foot exhibition space is located on the street level of the 4Culture administrative offices in the heart of Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood and is open weekdays from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Opening receptions take place on First Thursday, as part of the ever-popular art walk. For more information about the gallery program and past exhibitions, visit our main gallery page.

Opportunity

Gallery 4Culture seeks solo, collaborative and group exhibition proposals in a broad range of media for our next season, which runs from September 2023 through July 2024. Ten (10) month-long shows by King County-based artists will ultimately be presented. The gallery is dark in December and August. Emerging artists and those whose approach to studio practice is underrepresented in commercial venues are encouraged to apply. Installation and site-responsive artwork will be prioritized.

Selected artists, teams and groups receive curatorial direction, communications/PR support, and a $1,000 honorarium to help defray expenses. Artists are responsible for the delivery, installation and de-installation of their work, and for supplying and insuring all electronic equipment used in their show. The gallery space is adjacent to a busy conference room and open office; consequently, the sound levels of audio components will be restricted. While Gallery 4Culture is not a commercial venue, exhibiting artists are welcome to offer their works for sale. Any sale of art is handled directly between the artist and collector; 4Culture takes no commission.

2 Are You Eligible?

Eligibility

Visual artists, collaborative teams and artist groups working in all media and genres (except performance art) are eligible to apply.
Applicants, including all group or team members, must reside in King County, WA.
Applicants may not be represented by a commercial art gallery at the time of submission. Members of artist run collectives and cooperative galleries are welcome to apply.
Artists who have exhibited at Gallery 4Culture in solo or 2-person shows are ineligible to reapply for a period of three seasons.
Current 4Culture Board members, Advisory Committee members, employees, and the business partners and immediate family members of all the above are not eligible to apply.

3 How to Apply

Applicants must submit the following materials via online application.

Demographic Information

Your profile in our application portal must provide demographic information for the current year. We use this information to help us understand how well we are doing in our efforts to reach all communities in King County.

Profile

Contact information for yourself or all members of your team, if applying as a team.

Résumé

Two (2) page maximum artist résumé as a PDF. Text (.txt) files will also be accepted. Keep the formatting simple. Artist teams should upload one document with two-page résumés for each team member. Files must be less than 2MB in size.

Some suggested items to include in your artist résumé include:

Contact information: At the top of each page, include your name, address, phone number, email address and web URL.
Education: List all academic degrees earned. Also include periods of study at schools or universities attended without completing a degree.
Professional experience:
Exhibitions: List the title of the exhibition, the exhibition venue, and the city/state where the exhibition was presented. Please indicate if it was a solo, two-person, or group exhibition.
Experience: You may also consider listing experience that is relevant to your art practice such as teaching, lectures and artist residencies.
Honors and awards: List awards, grants, fellowships or other recognitions of merit.
Bibliography: List books, magazines, newspapers, and catalogues that reference your work.

Proposal Statement

A written statement (up to 300 words) that includes an overview of your art practice and describes the content and scope of your proposed exhibition. Please be explicit about medium and method and expand on the concept behind the exhibition. Also, clarify if your submitted work samples represent the proposed exhibition or vary significantly from it (if so, explain). In the case of collaborative teams or artist groups, be specific about your objectives for exhibiting together.

Work Samples

Ten (10) total work samples. Artists whose primary practice includes time-based media may include up to three (3) links to audio or video files in work samples 8-10, with a cumulative run-time of up to three (3) minutes.

Digital images: Submit ten (10) digital images of recent work that best illustrate your qualifications to exhibit. If applying as a collaborative team or group, include an example of each member’s work. Upload JPGs only; 1920 pixels on the longest side (suggested) and at least 72 dpi. Files must be less than 2MB in size. Images will be projected one at a time during the panel review session.
Audio/Video: Submit up to three (3) URLs to audio or video files of recent work that best illustrate your qualifications via SoundCloud, Vimeo, or YouTube. Indicate the specific URLs (e.g., soundcloud.com/29523 or vimeo.com/2992575). All submissions must be publicly accessible (password protected files will not be accepted). Audio and video files will be viewed for a cumulative total of three (3) minutes and must be edited to conform to this time limitation or include start and stop times.
Work sample descriptions: List the title, date of completion, medium, and dimensions (H” x W” x D”) or duration (HH:MM:SS), along with descriptive text (up to 75 words) for each work sample. If applying as a collaborative team or group, note who created the work. Please include the start and stop times for excerpted video samples at the beginning of the descriptive text.

Deadline

Applications must be submitted by 4:00 pm on December 15, 2022. Do not wait until the last minute! We urge you to submit your application early.

Translation and Assistance

If you anticipate a barrier to your participation due to limited English writing ability, visual impairment, or would like to request assistance to access this application, please contact us at hello@4culture.org or 206-296-7580 or TTY 711.

Si anticipa una barrera para su participación debido a la capacidad limitada de escritura en inglés, discapacidad visual, o desea solicitar asistencia para acceder a esta aplicación, contáctenos en hello@4culture.org o 206-296-7580 o TTY 711.

如果您由于英语写作能力有限，视力障碍而希望参加比赛，或者希望获得协助来访问此应用程序，请通过hello@4culture.org或206-296-7580或TTY 711与我们联系。

4 After You Submit

Selection Process and Criteria

A selection panel of three independent arts professionals will review submitted applications and recommend artists for the upcoming gallery season based on the conceptual quality of their proposals as well as the strength of their work. Résumés and work samples must clearly demonstrate the candidate’s capacity to successfully execute the proposed exhibition. The panel will strive to highlight a range of media and approaches to contemporary art making. Cultural and geographic diversity (within King County) will also be considered. The composition of the panel changes every year; thus, applicants whose proposals were reviewed but not selected in previous years are encouraged to reapply.

Schedule

Submission deadline: December 15, 2022, 4:00 pm PST
Selection panel review: mid-January 2023
Notification of results: early-February 2023

5 Helping You Succeed

Please contact Andy Le with questions about Gallery 4Culture or the application process:

andy.le@4culture.org
(206) 263-1587

View the gallery floor plan.