Applications are available for the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s (GAAC) 2020 student exhibition, Who Owns The Water? This themed, juried exhibition takes place April 7-May 1, and is open to students in grades 9-12, attending schools in Benzie, Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties. The deadline for online submissions is March 4. Three cash prizes will be awarded.
Applicants are challenged to come up with a visual response to the exhibition’s titular question: Who owns the water? The exhibition is open to 2D and 3D media. A prospectus and application are both online, at the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s website.
“Student voices have been some of the most powerful, and the most articulate in the contemporary struggle to protect, conserve and preserve the natural world,” said GAAC gallery manager Sarah Bearup-Neal.
“Students often think fearlessly and presciently about issues that send adults into a state of slow-mo inaction. As a culture, we need to hear from these young citizens, and listen to their thoughts and ideas. That’s the driving belief behind the Who Owns The Water? exhibition. It’s an open invitation to all high school students to weigh in on that essential question, and really tell us—and, using the visual arts, show us—what they think and feel.”
FLOW is a collaborator on this exhibition. Our new “Art Meets Water” initiative highlights examples of the heart-felt creativity that inspires us to fight for our public waters. “We all know that water is the source of the future,” says Leelanau County poet, playwright and paddleboarder Anne-Marie Oomen. “But it’s also a part of our souls and our spirits.”
An opening reception for Who Owns the Water? will be held at the Glen Arbor Arts Center on April 8 from 4-6 p.m.
As part of the Who Owns The Water? exhibition, the GAAC will also host the Fresh Water Poetry Throwdown on April 19. Any high school student can participate by reading an original poem—free verse, conventional verse, slam verse or otherwise—about water.
Read more about this event at the GAAC website. There is no charge to participate in the Fresh Water Poetry Throwdown, but poets must pre-register by Friday, April 3, for one of the 20 available slots. To pre-register, call the GAAC at 231-334-6112.
