Montclair Art Museum and Bloomfield College Announce the 2013 Bloomfield Avenue Prize

Sept. 4, 2012 - PRLog -- The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) and Bloomfield College (BC) are pleased to announce the inauguration of the Bloomfield Avenue Prize, a new annual prize offering the opportunity for an artist to execute an innovative public art project across the campuses of Bloomfield College and the Montclair Art Museum. It will represent the first collaboration between these neighboring institutions, located approximately two miles apart on Bloomfield Avenue in northern New Jersey, about 35 minutes from New York City. The winning project will bridge the College, the Museum, and their greater constituencies: a vibrant community with a diverse cultural and socioeconomic makeup.

The Bloomfield Avenue Prize winner will mount an exhibition running approximately three months, and will participate in five non-consecutive days of educational community programming for groups such as schools, families, undergraduate and graduate students, adults, and/or seniors. Artists should develop socially engaged projects that consider the shared concerns of the Bloomfield College and Montclair Art Museum communities; ideally projects should link the two campuses physically and/or symbolically, taking advantage of Bloomfield Avenue, the street on which both sites are located. Proposals should be interdisciplinary in nature, potentially including site-specific installation, performance, video, and/or other media; and must outline plans for educational community programming, in the form of workshops, seminars, tours, screenings, etc.

Projects should take full advantage of the shared resources at BC and MAM, which includes indoor and outdoor exhibition venues and work facilities for the artist. Production of projects will also draw in-kind resources from both institutions, including an interdisciplinary advisory committee and student assistants. There will be an open house to view the available sites and resources on October 5, 2012, from 2–5 p.m. EST. Please RSVP to Kimberly Fisher, curatorial assistant, by emailing kfisher@montclairartmuseum.org by October 1, 2012.

The selection committee co-chairs for this prize are Alexandra Schwartz, curator of contemporary art at the Montclair Art Museum, and Laura Nova, associate professor of creative art and technology at Bloomfield College. Applications are due November 1, 2012 and the winner will be announced in late 2012. The prize is $5,500 USD.

For more information, a full list of available resources, and application guidelines, please see https://www.montclairartmuseum.org/bloomfieldprize.php.


About Bloomfield College
Bloomfield College is an independent, four-year, coeducational college, founded in 1868. The College's mission is to prepare students to attain academic, personal and professional excellence in a multicultural and global society.

About the Museum
The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) presents exhibitions and programs that reflect its collection of historic and contemporary American and Native American art. MAM's Yard School of Art offers classes for people of all ages.