Artist Application Form Template
An open-call application for exhibitions and art spaces: a page-limited portfolio PDF, a scoped artist statement, medium, and hanging logistics.
Our open call is open. We read first-time exhibitors with the same eyes as regulars, and the work itself carries the decision.
As you want it printed and credited.
150–300 words about your practice: what you make and what it is asking.
One image per page with title, medium, dimensions, and year.
An open call succeeds when the jury can compare work fairly and fast, which makes the application mostly a container-design problem. Every choice in this template exists to make fifty submissions readable in one sitting without flattening what makes each artist distinct.
Designing the container. The portfolio is a single PDF with a ten-page ceiling and a prescribed format: one image per page with title, medium, dimensions, and year. Uniform containers are what make jurying equitable, with no advantage for whoever sends thirty images and no penalty for the artist who didn't know how many was normal. The artist statement is scoped to 150–300 words; unbounded statements reward art-school fluency more than practice, and jurors stop reading at the second page anyway. The medium multi-select is the curator's balance sheet: a strong group show needs range, and this field turns "do we have too much photography?" into a filter instead of a memory exercise. Piece count feeds the hanging plan, since wall meters are the real constraint of most spaces, and knowing whether an artist wants to show two works or fifteen changes the layout. The exhibited-before question helps program a mix of returning names and first-timers, and the intro promises first-timers a fair read, which changes who dares to apply.
Off the call sheet. Prices and insurance values stay off the form: commercial details belong in the consignment paperwork after selection, not in front of a jury. Exhibition-history CVs stay off too, since the work should carry the decision, and history lists bias panels toward the already-shown. Physical drop-offs are unnecessary, because digital first-round review saves everyone a van trip.
Who runs open calls with this. Galleries running annual open calls, cafes and offices with rotating wall programs, residencies screening applicants, art fairs curating booths, and artist guilds jurying member shows.
Editing it, format held. Set the deadline as a close date so "is it too late to apply?" answers itself, and write the closed message with the next call's season. Jurying works well straight from the response view, where statements and portfolio links sit together, or export CSV to build a scoresheet with one row per artist. If your call has themes or size limits, say so in the intro text block; ambiguity there generates your entire inbox for a month. The prescribed portfolio format does real labor for your jurors, so resist relaxing it. The moment formats diverge, comparison becomes impression, and impressions favor the familiar.
Frequently asked questions
Why one PDF instead of separate image uploads?
A page-limited PDF keeps every submission the same size and shape, which is what makes jury comparison fair. It uploads once (up to 10 MB) and reads like a portfolio should.
How does the jury review submissions?
Panels read in the response view, where the statement and portfolio sit together, or export everything as CSV and score in a spreadsheet, one artist per row.
Can we set a submission deadline?
A close date in Settings shuts the call on schedule and shows your message. Most spaces use it to announce when the next open call begins.
What about pricing and sales details?
Leave them out of the call, and request prices and consignment terms from accepted artists only. Putting money in front of the jury changes how work gets read.