Artist Calls

The City of Oshawa is situated on lands and waters within the Williams Treaties Territory, home to seven First Nation communities of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Anishinaabeg, who have cared for and maintained these lands from time immemorial and continue to do so to present day. Learn more.

Each year the City of Oshawa is proud to offer arts, culture and heritage programming in alignment with Oshawa's Cultural Strategic Plan, Culture Counts: Oshawa’s Arts, Culture & Heritage Plan.

The theme for the exhibition is “We Gather, We Remember, We Belong”.

Artwork selected for exhibition will be printed and exhibited in Veterans Square on a Curbex Pod for the duration of the festival weekend and should conform to a 6:7 aspect ratio.

A banner will be added to the bottom of the printed artwork with the artist’s name, title of the artwork, year of the artwork, and additional information (including City logo, Convergence logo, and a QR code). The artwork will be sized to accommodate the banner and will be printed at approximately 36” wide and 42” high.

Images may be cropped, if required, to fit the dimensions of the display area.

Artists may submit up to a maximum of three images for consideration.

Artists will be asked to submit:

• Contact information
• Artist biography that includes your connection to Oshawa or the traditional and treaty territory of the Williams Treaties (maximum 300 words)
• Artist statement that includes how the proposed artwork connects to the theme “We Gather, We Remember, We Belong” (maximum 300 words)
• Print ready image(s) of submitted artwork which meets the following criteria:
  • Vertical orientation
  • Minimum of 300 dpi
  • High resolution jpg file format
  • Conform to a 6:7 aspect ratio; final display size is 36 inches wide and 42 inches in height
• Title of the artwork(s)
• CV (optional)

If you experience difficulties with the submission form, please email your submission to culturecounts@oshawa.ca.

The City of Oshawa invites applications from artists at all stages of their careers, including emerging, mid-career and established individual artists.

This call is open to local artists. Local is defined as someone who was born in, lives/lived in, works/worked in, attends/attended post-secondary school in, or has a significant connection to Oshawa, or an Indigenous person with a connection to the traditional and treaty territory of the Williams Treaties.

The applicant must be 18 years of age or older.

Employees of the City of Oshawa are not eligible.

A selection committee will review submissions. The selection committee may be comprised of members of the Cultural Leadership Council, members of the Public Art Task Force and/or City staff. 

The applicants selected will be chosen based on specific Selection Considerations outlined in the Public Art Policy and select Guiding Principles as outlined in the Public Art Master Plan:

• Quality of art
  • Excellence and craftsmanship
  • Creativity and innovation

• Overall quality
  • Originality of design
  • Intrigues viewers and stimulates imagination
  • Artist reputation (demonstrated and related experience)

• Community relevance and impact
  • Suitability for display in a public space
  • Reflects the city’s heritage and/or history, culture and diversity, and/or natural elements and landscapes

• Submission
  • Compliance with guidelines outlined in the Call for Artists
  • Ability to meet deadlines
  • Submission is complete

Selected artists will be paid an artist fee of $200.00 in accordance with CARFAC.

Submission deadline: June 12

Artists notified: Week of July 12

Confirmation of print ready files provided by artists: July 26

Exhibition date: September 19 and 20

*The timeline may be subject to changes.

Complete the online application form.

If the files exceed 14 MB (12 MB print ready image(s) of artwork, and 2 MB for CV (optional)), artists are asked to email culturecounts@oshawa.ca and use an external file share program.

The artists selected will be required to enter into a contract with the City of Oshawa to exhibit their work. If the City and a selected artist cannot agree on the terms of the contract, the selection committee may, at the City of Oshawa’s sole discretion, choose another artist to exhibit their work.

No artist shall have any rights against the City arising from participation in this Call for Artists or submitting an application for the City of Oshawa’s consideration.

By submitting an application for the City of Oshawa’s consideration, artists hereby release and hold harmless the City of Oshawa from any and all actions, charges, claims, costs, damages, demands, liabilities, losses, suits, proceedings, costs and expenses pertaining to the artist's participation in the Call for Artists.

By submitting an application for the City of Oshawa’s consideration, artists agree that all decisions of the City and its employees in relation to the Temporary Exhibition at Convergence are final and binding. Artists also agree that the selection of the winners by the selection committee is final and not subject to any right of appeal or review.

By submitting an application for the City of Oshawa’s consideration, artists represent and warrant that they have read and understood and agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

The City of Oshawa will not facilitate sales of the artwork. The artwork may not be sold during the exhibition period.

The City of Oshawa is committed to fostering an equitable and inclusive community that celebrates the diverse lived-experiences of our residents. We encourage submissions from artists from equity-deserving groups that have been historically underrepresented in the arts, including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour), 2SLGBTQIA+ identifying individuals, people who are Deaf, and persons with disabilities, and strive to eliminate barriers to the meaningful inclusion of members of these communities.

If you have questions about applying, or require accommodations to participate in this process, please contact culturecounts@oshawa.ca.

We are happy to provide support and advice related to the application to make this call as accessible as possible to applicants.

All artworks must meet certain requirements. The following content guidelines must be adhered to for artwork submitted:

1. The content is not in conflict with any laws, City by-laws or policies;
2. The content does not conflict with the City’s values, vision or strategic goals;
3. The content does not conflict with goals as outlined in key strategic plans, including the Diversity and Inclusion Plan and the Culture Counts: Oshawa Arts, Culture & Heritage Plan;
4. The content does not contain material which could be considered inappropriate, discriminatory, hateful, violent, abusive, insensitive, culturally appropriative or otherwise offensive; and
5. The content should be suitable for audiences of all ages, and should not include content involving references to drugs, injury, obscene gestures, and/or crude content, and must be politically neutral, that is, must not advocate a specific political point of view.

Personal information on this form is collected pursuant to Section 11 of the Municipal Act, 2001, S.O. 2001, c. 25 and will be used to administer the Call for Artists. Questions about this collection should be directed to the City’s Information, Access and Privacy Officer at 50 Centre Street South, Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 3Z7, by phone at 905-436-3311.