Call For Artists: 2019-2020 El Paseo Sculpture Exhibition

From The City of Palm Desert: The City of Palm Desert invites all artists, galleries, museums, non-profit arts organizations, and private collectors to participate in the 2019/2020 El Paseo Sculpture Exhibition. The deadline for entries, which must be submitted electronically at www.callforentry.org, is February 28, 2018, at 11:59 p.m. MST.

The City’s Art in Public Places Commission will select 18 sculptures and three alternates from submitted entries on March 14. The City Council will review the selections and artists whose works have been approved for the Exhibition will be notified beginning April 16. Installation is expected to take place between October 22 and November 8 with a dedication to take place in January 2019. Artists who participated in the 2017/2018 El Paseo exhibition are not eligible.

Selected sculptures will be showcased on the medians of Palm Desert’s world famous shopping thoroughfare, El Paseo, where they will be seen by thousands of residents and Palm Desert visitors. Southwest Magazine has identified Palm Desert and the exhibition, which has been featured repeatedly in national art journals such as Sculpture Magazine and Art in America, as one of five art destinations in the United States.

The City of Palm Desert provides a $5,000 honorarium for each selected artwork. The exhibition also presents a unique opportunity for artists to display and potentially sell their work. The City has purchased pieces from previous El Paseo exhibitions for its permanent public art collection and exhibition sculptures are sold to visiting collectors every year.

Artworks that are sold cannot be removed for six months once installation is complete. If an exhibition sculpture is sold, the artist or their representative must resubmit a replacement artwork for approval that must be installed at the same time the other piece is removed.

The artist or their representative is responsible for all costs associated with the replacement and only one replacement per pad may be made during the exhibition period. Additional honorariums will not be paid for replacement artworks.

The Public Art Department organizes the El Paseo exhibitions on behalf of the City’s Art in Public Places Commission and the El Paseo Merchants Association. Interested parties can obtain detailed submission guidelines and more information by calling 760-837-1664 or by emailing dglickman@cityofpalmdesert.org.

Photo Credit Renee Schiavone