Are you a Midwest-based artist whose work reflects your unique aesthetic and artistic voice?

Do you create work that explores the histories and lived experiences of Indigenous, diasporic, disabled, trans and/or queer communities?

Sixty Inches From Center is seeking submissions from photographers, illustrators, digital artists, graphic design artists, and graffiti artists to expand our Visual Contributor pool beyond Chicago to other Midwestern areas. For the purposes of this call, Sixty defines the Midwest as: Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the tribal nations of the Midwest region. 

Deadline: July 7, 2025 @ 11:59pm CST

What is a Sixty Visual Contributor?

Visual Contributors support Sixty’s editors and writers by providing high-quality images to accompany the poems, articles, essays, and interviews Sixty publishes. Sixty commissions Visual Contributors to pull inspiration, themes, imagery, and other aesthetic insight from the written work to visually complement pieces. Visual Contributors work with Sixty’s Visual Editor to collaboratively conceptualize high-quality, final images that reflect Sixty’s core values and visual aesthetic. Visual Contributors may also pitch to Sixty and produce their own image-based or multimedia work that responds visually to an exhibition, artist’s work, community issue or event. 

Compensation and Benefits

Sixty Inches From Center pays a standard rate of $150 per article to writers, photographers, and illustrators, unless otherwise indicated.

In addition, as a Sixty Visual Contributor, you will:

• Join a team of brilliant artists, writers, editors, and poets from across the Midwest who love creating and uplifting Indigenous, queer, disabled, and diasporic art, histories, and perspectives.
• Become eligible to receive an invitation to join the Sixty Collective, an arts worker database for Sixty’s team and network of freelance cultural workers across the Midwest that provides access to free resources, learnings, peer networks, Sixty’s community Discord and more to come.
• Be commissioned to create images for the Special Projects and Partnerships (Chicago Archives + Artists Project, Diamond in the Back) arm of Sixty (with higher pay rates), in addition to creating images for incoming written pitches. 

In the submission form you will be asked to provide the following info:

We recommend that you gather your answers in a separate document before beginning the submission form, because you cannot save your progress within the form.

1. Name, pronouns, and contact info
2. Where in the Midwest are you based?
3. What media do you work in?
4. Artist bio (up to 500 words) answering the following questions: What styles, ideas, themes, or questions do you explore in your work? How do you approach your creation process? Do you approach commissions and personal work differently?
5. 5-10 work samples: You can upload images or provide a link to an online portfolio
6. CV/Resumé
7. Are you interested in joining Sixty Collective? Sixty Collective is an arts worker directory and community for Sixty’s team and network of freelance cultural workers across the Midwest that provides access to free resources, learnings, advisors, peer networks, and so much more
8. How many image requests are you interested in taking on per month?
9. How many weeks do you typically need to complete an image?
10. Why are you interested in working with Sixty as a Visual Contributor? 

Submissions are due by 11:59 PM on JULY 7, 2025. Sixty’s Visuals Editor, Ireashia Bennett, will reach out for interviews in mid-July. If you have any questions about the submission process or eligibility, please reach out to ireashia@sixtyinchesfromcenter.org.