Submit Your Art to the Women’s March on Washington

The US Capitol building (photo by Tom Finzel/Flickr)

Anyone who’s ever protested knows that strong actions are often accompanied by strong visuals, and in the case of the upcoming Women’s March on Washington, those visuals could be designed by you. The march, in conjunction with the Amplifier Foundation, has issued an open call for art to be used on posters and banners.

Though it began as an off-the-cuff Facebook invite, spawned some initial protests, and then faced logistical difficulties, the Women’s March on Washington is now poised to be the largest demonstrationsurrounding President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, with 100,000 people having registered to attend the January 21 event. Organizers have partnered with the Amplifier Foundation — which describes itself as “a visual media experiment dedicated to amplifying the voices of grassroots movements through art and community engagement” — to seek out artwork that will likely set the visual tone for the march. According to the call, the winning pieces (there’s no indication of how many) will be used on “a minimum of 30,000 posters and nine large-scale banners.” And each selected work will earn its creator a grant of $500.

(screenshot via theamplifierfoundation.org)

Submissions are open to “all female-identifying artists located within the United States.” Pieces should reflect the mission and values of the march, which are outlined on the open call page and center on the idea that (emphasis theirs) “women’s rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.” Six judges, including street artist Swoon and Jess X. Snow and Favianna Rodriguez from Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, will select the winning work, with the goal of making sure that it “reflects women and femme expressive people of all backgrounds.”

Submitting artists aren’t required to disclose any information about their own backgrounds, however. All you need are your name, contact information, and PDFs or JPGs of your work. The deadline is 2pm on this Sunday, January 8, so get going and get creative. Just don’t get so caught up in the excitement of expressing your protest message that you mix up your gender symbols.