Pacific Northwest Sculptors

Sculptors share knowledge and resources

Shows-Future

Augmented Reality Exhibition Opportunity for Your Real-World Physical Sculpture in Public Sculpture Park

You have the opportunity to participate in a cutting-edge sculpture exhibition that is anticipated to be the first of its kind in the world: An Augmented Reality exhibition of real-world sculptures that will be virtually displayed via an app onto a real-world outdoor pedestal in a beautiful forested public sculpture park setting.  Your preparation steps can be done simply and remotely from your studio or wherever your physical sculpture is currently located, with no requirements for travel or onsite installation.  This unique ongoing show comes with many artist benefits including public exhibition at a popular sculpture park, association with a whole new way of experiencing sculpture, marketing of you, zero commission on sales (100% to artist), and no additional costs beyond the entry fee.  We seek unique, exciting artistic visions that will enthrall viewers through both your original sculpture and this new interactive way of experiencing your art.  Sculptures will be exhibited in small groups and rotated over time, with the possibility of making repeat appearances.

Up to 10 selected artists will each be paid a $500 honorarium for your participation. As an added bonus, only Pacific Northwest Sculptors members will receive a 50% discount on the entry fee.  Follow the entry instructions, just pay $15 ($30 for non-members), and include a note that you are a PNWS member.

Price Sculpture Forest (www.SculptureForest.org) is Where Art Enhances Nature and Nature Enhances Art.  We are a 501c3 nonprofit public sculpture park and nature preserve set within a mature native Pacific Northwest habitat north of Seattle, Washington.  Visitor and media reception to the sculpture experience has been terrific and is continually growing, with art lovers strolling among the exhibited sculptures and walking paths throughout the year.

Your real-world physical sculpture will be digitally transformed for onsite display by a technology startup company we are partnering with.  A custom Augmented Reality phone app has already been created specifically for this exhibition at Price Sculpture Forest.  Visitors will download the app onsite (free WiFi is provided) and be able to view your sculpture via a QR code on your sculpture plaque that shows your name and sculpture title.  The visitors can then see your high-resolution sculpture on the pedestal seamlessly placed within the visual context of the entire area, background, and people there.  They can walk around your sculpture to see it from all angles and view it up close or from a distance.  They can even stand by your sculpture and take a picture with it.  The app will include artist information about you plus links to your website and social media for additional information, contact, and sales inquiries.

The behind-the-scenes technology we have developed for digitizing your sculpture is complex, yet the steps needed from you have been optimized to be both quick and simple.  We will provide straightforward step-by-step instructions plus be available to help by phone or email, if needed.  You basically just need a good quality high resolution video camera (most modern smartphones will work), good even lighting all around your sculpture if possible, and the ability to upload a large video file to a website.  We handle everything else for you from there.

We are looking for sculptures that represent either of two specific themes, Nature Nurtured and Whimsy Way, as described in the prospectus. Go to https://SculptureForest.org/ARExhibition for more information and to apply.

Display Your Work at Oregon Society of Artists

OSA Outdoor Sculpture Display Guidelines

The Garden at Oregon Society of Artists

PNWS has installed a concrete sculpture display pad in the garden at OSA to feature individual sculptures for 3-month intervals.

The pad measures 24”H x 30”W x 30”D. A steel pipe is centered in the concrete pad. If additional anchors are necessary, details should be part of your application. We want to limit the number of anchors drilled into the pad.

Sculpture Requirements:

— Sculpture submissions must be by active member of PNWS.

— Art must be suitable for outdoor exhibition in a public space.

— Art must be a minimum of 2’ and no taller than 8’.

— Art will be installed and removed at the artist’s expense in coordination with OSA groundskeeper.

— Art will remain on display for the entire 3-month period.

— Art must be installed with sufficient anchoring to prevent the sculpture from being removed, tipped, broken or overturned.

— Art must be maintenance free for the duration of the exhibition period.

— All art must be an original creation by the artist.

— Works of art shall not create inordinate safety problems or liability problems for OSA visitors.

— OSA is located in a residential area. Sound or light components are discouraged.

— Appropriateness of kinetic elements will be at the discretion of the jurors.

Jury process: Jury will consist of the PNWS Show Committee Chair and at least one additional PNWS Board member plus one representative of OSA. The Gallery reserves the right to reject artwork that fails to meet the above requirements or crosses acceptable boundaries. This would include misogynistic and/or racist imagery, depiction of extreme violence or graphic sexuality, and objectionable political or religious imagery.

Insurance: Insurance for artwork while on OSA property will be the responsibility of the artist.

Sale/Commission: Works in the exhibit may be offered for sale, but it is not a requirement. OSA’s commission rate is 30 percent of all sales. Funds will be collected by OSA from buyers and then dispersed to artists within 30 days of the end of the exhibition. The artist and buyer must arrange artwork delivery and shipping costs.

Artist identification: OSA will display a one-page description of the artist/artwork near the entrance to the gallery. Information will be gleaned from the submission documentation.

Submission process:

— Submissions are due 30 days before the end of each calendar quarter. Reminders will be included in the PNWS newsletters.

— Submission shall include artist name, art title, date created, material, size, (height, width, depth), weight, special installation considerations, selling price, and an artist’s statement (300 character limit).

— Images and information will be submitted via email to president@pnwsculptors.org.

Creative Collaborations: Virtual Show Details

Active PNWS members are invited to participate in “Creative Collaborations,” our virtual sculpture show. The show will be visible on our website September 1, 2022.  

Both collaborators must register. If you don’t have a partner, indicate that below.

  • You may include more than one partner in your collaboration.
  • You may participate in more than one collaboration.
  • You do not have to know what you will create to register. We want to know who is participating at this point.

We will have an online forum available soon where participants can share their discussions, progress and images as projects develop. This will be visible to all members so everyone can see and enjoy the process.

Similar in theme to “Unmatched Pairs” from our group show in 2019 at the Multnomah Art Gallery, pairs of artists will show a piece demonstrating the power of creative collaboration from concept to completion. Additionally, each paired artist will also display one individual piece adjacent to the collaborative piece to give viewers a broader perspective of the interaction of their creative inspiration. Participants will create one collaborative piece, one individual piece, and one sketch for perspective of their collaboration process. Sketches are optional.

This show has no entry fee. No commissions. Non-juried.  All sales are directly between artist and buyer. Contact Katie Sallos with questions or requests.

CRITICAL DATES:

March 15, 2022        Complete the Show Application Form
August 15, 2022       Submit images for the virtual show
September 1, 2022    Show Launch

PNWS artists must identify themselves using the Show Application Form.  Artists wishing to participate, but who have not found a pairing should also complete the form. The show committee will help match up individual artists.

DETAILS: File format and size requirements will be provided soon.

Bringing Sculpture to Future Frontiers in New Collaborative Project

Scott Price –

What if your sculpture could be seen anywhere, at any time? What if your sculpture could be experienced from all angles in 3 dimensions as if it was right in front of an appreciative patron or art lover, even though your original physical sculpture was still in your studio a thousand miles away? What kind of possibilities and opportunities could this create for you to get cutting edge exposure of your work through a whole new way to interact with 3D art?

Price Sculpture Forest, Pacific Northwest Sculptors, and Prefixa are partnering to push the boundaries of sculpture exhibition, technology, interactivity, availability, and viewer experiences.

Chas Martin, president of Pacific Northwest Sculptors, connected with Miguel Arias, founder of the California technology company Prefixa that specializes in new advanced visual and immersive experiences. In parallel, Scott Price, founder of Price Sculpture Forest located on Whidbey Island, was researching how to bring augmented reality sculpture for visitors to expand their onsite art experience in a big, modern way. Miguel was a featured speaker at a recent monthly PNWS members meeting, and that convergence sparked a great collaboration that is now growing.

The vision is for augmented reality renditions of sculpture to be displayed in a sculpture park on a pedestal. This will meld and blur the historical distinction between in-person sculpture experiences and detached, location-independent augmented reality experiences. An artist will be able to have their work displayed virtually for an audience that would otherwise never have experienced the artist’s work. With the increasing presence and computing power of mobile phones, augmented reality allows visitors to interact, control, and have fun with how they experience the art.

Prefixa has developed technologies and easy to use processes for a sculptor to convert their sculpture into the company’s format and customizable phone app. All the high-tech wizardry will be performed behind the scenes by Prefixa, requiring only minimal, non-technical steps to be performed once by the artist.

Then Prefixa will create a high-resolution, realistic representation of an artist’s work that can be viewed from all sides. At the Sculpture Forest, the visitor will look at their smart phone screen to see the augmented reality sculpture overlaid on a physical pedestal. The viewer can physically walk around your sculpture where it sits in virtual space, observing it from all angles up, down, left, and right from 360 degrees around in all directions. If the viewer wants to see the other side of your sculpture, they walk to the other side of the pedestal that your sculpture is sitting on in augmented reality, just like they would if your sculpture was displayed there.

This is an exciting new frontier for physical art merging with digital space and modern interaction modalities. It spans time and space, and this even opens up future opportunities for NFT (non-fungible token) art sales. Only a few sculpture parks around the world have exhibited digital 3D art. In addition, they have generally been purely digital software that was not based upon original physical sculptures. The few attempts up to now have been created more by software designers and digital designers with an artistic flair, rather than sculptors of physical materials. This new collaborative effort is based on our shared reality of physical sculptures and transforms them for public exhibition at a physical sculpture space into interactive augmented reality. We will be venturing into new frontiers here.

The three partners are currently working on multiple aspects of building out this new experience. The program, physical space, and funding is being led by Price Sculpture Forest. The underlying technology, approach, and custom app is being developed by Prefixa. Pacific Northwest Sculptors will lead in getting the word out to sculptors of this new opportunity and helping with the upcoming Call for Artists and exhibition.

If this excites you, please consider a donation toward the technology and program startup costs. You can donate at www.SculptureForest.org/donate and specify it go toward the Augmented Reality Sculpture Project.

Stay tuned for more updates as we get this unique and groundbreaking effort launched.