Envisioning Human Rights: The Next Generation

Visual art is a powerful tool to create awareness and change in the face of both national and international human rights abuses. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Human Rights Center at the UC Berkeley School of Law, the Human Rights Center and UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) invite students from all University of California campuses to submit works of art for a juried exhibition addressing critical human rights issues. The resulting exhibition, Envisioning Human Rights: The Next Generation, will be presented at BAM/PFA for approximately five months, starting in April 2014, and will showcase works by emerging artist/activists. Submissions dealing with any human rights topics are welcome.

Eligibility is open to all currently registered students on all University of California campuses. Up to three works may be submitted, although only one work from each accepted artist will be exhibited. There is no entry fee. Media must be 2D works only: photography, painting, prints, collage, or drawing. No 3D, film, video, projection, or monitor-based work is accepted. Framed dimensions must not exceed 42" x 52". All works must be framed, glazed with Plexiglas, and fitted with metal D-rings for installation. North Berkeley Frame will offer a 30% discount to accepted artists.

Exhibited works are eligible for awards to be chosen by the exhibition curators and presented during the opening reception. Jurors include Lucinda Barnes, chief curator and director of programs and collections at BAM/PFA, and Pamela Blotner, curator of the Human Rights Center's anniversary exhibitions and artist at Pamela Blotner Studios. A concurrent invitational exhibition at the Boalt Law Gallery—Envisioning Human Rights—will feature photography by photo-journalists who have worked with the Human Rights Center over the past two decades.