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Waterville Creates invites proposals from individuals, groups, and/or organizations for community-centered arts programming to be held at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center in Downtown Waterville between June 1, 2023 and May 30, 2024. Proposals may be submitted by individual artists, artist collaboratives, and/or arts organizations. This call is open to local, regional, and national applicants; however, priority will be given to Maine-based artists. The deadline for submission is April 14, 2023.
With this call, we are seeking proposals for diverse and dynamic programs that will invite people of all ages and backgrounds into the Paul J. Schupf Art Center by providing accessible, meaningful, and joyful arts experiences while also responding to issues and themes that are relevant and important to our community.

**BACKGROUND**

On December 17, 2022, after years of planning, the Paul J. Schupf Art Center opened to the public in the heart of Downtown Waterville. Home to Waterville Creates and its three programming divisions, the Maine Film Center, Waterville Opera House, and Ticonic Gallery + Studios, as well as the Colby College Museum of Art’s Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery, this new art center now serves as a welcoming and vibrant home for creativity and community.

In the summer of 2022, in partnership with the Colby College Museum of Art and its Lunder Institute for American Art, Waterville Creates engaged social practice artists Elizabeth Jabar and Colleen Kinsella, founders of the Future Mothers artist collective, to design and facilitate free experiences to explore a series of questions, including: What does it mean to be part of a community? How can we forge meaningful connections with each other and the place we call home? The process culminated in a beautiful, inaugural exhibition at Ticonic Gallery + Studios’ new gallery in the Paul J. Schupf Art Center that showcased the individual and collective stories gathered over the course of the project and provided a glimpse of the community’s shared hopes, dreams, and ideas for Waterville. The project also identified several common themes that Waterville Creates and its partners seek to explore through community- centered arts programming.

**THEMES**

The themes that arose from the Common Threads project range from shared concern about societal issues to interest in learning more about our community and its roots to a general desire for inclusive arts experiences. The top themes identified include:
• Care + compassion
• Sharing + celebrating previously untold stories
• The environment + climate change
• Celebrating our relationship to the land: farming, rural spaces, local ecosystems
• Honoring our Indigenous communities by celebrating Indigenous makers, scholars, voices, and cultural
traditions
• Acknowledging and addressing economic disparity
• Equity, access + representation: Whose stories get told? Who gets a voice in shaping our community?
• The importance of intergenerational experiences


**PROGRAMMING FORMAT**

Proposals may include programming in a variety of media and formats, including film screenings + discussions, visual arts workshops, music, dance, and theatre performances, art installations, outdoor film projection, discussion groups, lectures, and more. Eligible programs include one-time events, performances, or presentations as well as ongoing programming series. Proposals must respond to one or more of the themes outlined above and include
a clear explanation of how the community will be invited to participate in and even contribute to the proposed programming.
We also welcome programming that supports and/or responds to existing arts events and programs, such as First Fridays, the Colby College Museum of Art’s Community Day, the Maine International Film Festival, and Waterville Opera House productions.

Open Call for Proposals

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Open Call for Proposals

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