Deadline: July 1, 2024 at 11:59pm CST
APPLY HERE
As a part of a new collaboration with Black Lunch Table (BLT), Sixty is announcing an open call for writers to pitch critical essays, journalistic takes, exhibition reviews (solo or two-person shows), and/or deep dives into the lives and practices of Black artists based in the Midwest, especially those whose Wikipedia pages lack sufficient citations, for a new editorial series: Crowdsourcing the Canon.
About the Initiative:
Black Lunch Table’s Wikipedia initiative mobilizes the creation and improvement of Wikipedia articles about Black artists’ lives and works. Relational, citable written works are central to documenting an artist’s life and work on Wikipedia.
The underrepresentation of Black artists on Wikipedia mirrors the imbalance in coverage of Black artists in general publishing and critical art writing. Through this initiative, we aim to increase the quantity and quality of citations possible for articles about contemporary Black artists on Wikipedia. BLT x Sixty’s collaboration bridges the citation gap that exists between an artist’s career and the criticism they receive—a discourse that is crucial to fulfilling Wikipedia’s notability requirements.
These articles will serve as critical entry points for the continued development of Black artists’ Wikipedia pages. By extension, we hope this intervention will encourage Wikipedia’s larger editorship to take an active role in developing the pages of artists who appear within BLT’s range of focus. Furthermore, it is an urgent opportunity to further strengthen the already thriving Midwestern arts and criticism community.
Submission guidelines:
We are accepting pitches through July 1, 2024. All contributors will be paid $350 upon publication.
We are looking for critical essays, journalistic takes, exhibition reviews (solo or two-person shows), and/or deep dives into the lives and practices of Black artists based in the Midwest. This call will prioritize those who have a clear commitment to researching, curating, or writing about Black cultural production and artistic practices.
Sixty defines the Midwest as the interconnected Native lands and diverse communities overlapping the arbitrary colonial boundaries of North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Each piece has a suggested length of up to 1,000 words. For examples of the types of critical arts writing we are looking for, see here, here, here, and here.
We encourage contributors to submit a pitch covering an artist of their choosing, but if you would like to pitch and do not have a set vision, here is a list of suggested artists and exhibitions.
To submit, please fill out our pitch form here.
Black Lunch Table is a radical archiving project. Our mission is to build a more complete understanding of cultural history by illuminating the stories of Black people and our shared stake in the world. We envision a future in which all of our histories are recorded and valued.
