Calls for Entry
Most Exchange Gallery shows include work by artists young and old, established and up-and-coming, professional and amateur, from throughout the Susquehanna River Valley -- everyone from Bloomsburg University art students and professors to regional high school students to pre-schoolers, people who have exhibited nationally to those showing their work for the first time. Please check here regularly for information on upcoming open-call shows.
"What I Did In Quarantine", 2021
​Unless noted, it costs nothing to enter our shows, and we have only one rule: The work must fit through the Gallery's front door. We encourage artists to put their work for sale; they receive 80% of the sale price and the Gallery retains 20% to help keep our light on.
When you bring your work to the Gallery, please have one of these forms filled out. (If you cannot print it ahead of time, we will have them here for you.)
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We also occasionally make a video about the work in a show, and we would like to include artists speaking about their work. If you can make your own short video clip, please e-mail it to us at Exchange@ExchangeArts.org; you may also e-mail us a self-portrait/headshot and an artist's statement.
The Exchange coordinates rotating exhibits at other venues too: the Bloomsburg Public Library on Market Street and the Silk Mill Apartments on 6th Street; in both locations, work changes quarterly. For information about how you can show your artwork at either of them, contact us at 570-317-2596 or Exchange@ExchangeArts.org. See below for photos of some of the spaces available at the Library.
2024 SHOWS
"Cash & Carry XI": November 25th through December 27th
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UPDATE AS OF SEPTEMBER 13th:
We now have hundreds of panels for artists to make art on, and we'll give them away.
The panels themselves serve as the theme of the show.
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This year we cut 1/2"-thick MDF into 269 8" squares,
195 7" by 9" rectangles, and another 50-odd
smaller rectangles (the offcuts).
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Artists can paint on these panels, draw on them, glue a photograph on, knit around them -- ANYTHING.
We will hang the show over the weekend before Thanksgiving; come in and browse before Friday, December 6th (December's First Friday). On that Friday morning, we’ll start handing out numbers, and at 6 p.m. the person with number 1 gets to choose ONE piece; if she wants a second piece, she must take another number and go to the back of the line. Same with number 2, number 3, etc. -- each one gets to choose ONE piece the first time through.
Once the rush ends, then we open it up to as many pieces as each customer wants, but until then we keep it fair and fun. And when you pay for your piece(s), you may take the art home -- thus the “carry” party of the show's name. (We do take checks and cards, but we just like the way that “Cash & Carry” sounds.)
Every piece this year will sell for $30, with the artist receiving $24; any artist wishing to donate more or all of the proceeds to The Exchange may certainly do so.
Coming in 2025:
As always, all ages and levels of experience welcome to participate in our open-call shows.​
Our shows have one rule: The work must fit through the front door.
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OPEN-CALL SHOW: “A Stroke of Luck”
Monday, January 6th, through Friday, February 14th
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The Exchange gallery seeks artwork created by chance, randomness, or improvisation. Some modern art styles such as automatism and abstract expressionism rely on spontaneity as a means to produce artwork. Or perhaps you started out with a specific plan for a work of art and ended up with something completely different than your original intention. Have you ever accidentally spilled water on your painting or unintentionally blurred a photograph only to find that you ended up liking the deviation more than the original plan?
Links for inspiration:
Letting Go: Making Art with the Element of Chance – moma.org/magazine/articles/393
How to Do the Classic Pulled String Art Project – youtube.com/watch?v=vuD3Xo1vK_Q
Blow Painting with Straws – youtube.com/watch?v=8o5zT1_aKf8
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“Follow the Leader” Student/Teacher Show
Show runs Tuesday, February 18th through Friday, March 21st
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​We will collaborate with art teachers from throughout the region to showcase their students’ artwork alongside the teachers’ own.
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OPEN-CALL SHOW: “American Dreams”
Show runs Monday, March 24th, through Friday, May 2nd
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A collaboration between The Exchange and WVIA,
northeastern Pennsylvania's public radio and television station
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As part of a series of programs that WVIA will facilitate on the subject of the arts and civic engagement, The Exchange asks artists the following questions: What does it mean to be an American? What are the big ideas that we have built our nation on? Which of those ideas really work? Which of them do we still need to work on? How do we as artists drive these conversations and these efforts? America is more than one idea; in fact, it is the sum of all of our ideas – thus the plural name of the show, “American Dreams”.
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Stay tuned for a more complete call for entries coming soon.
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OPEN-CALL SHOW: “Tools of the Trade”
Show runs Monday, May 5th, through Friday, June 13th
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The poem “The Village Blacksmith” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow speaks of a blacksmith’s bellows and brawny arms. Hammer, pencil, frying pan, a needle and thread, words (spoken or written), hands, a soft calming touch – what do all these have in common? Any one of them may serve as a tool of someone’s trade. The tools we use in our lives’ work have endless possibilities. Express in art your vision of a tool of your trade or of someone else’s trade.
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OPEN-CALL SHOW: “Made by Fire”
Show runs Monday, June 16th, through Friday, July 25th
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Potentially warming, potentially destructive, and also offering potential for creation, fire is a necessary element in certain processes of artmaking. From casting and forging metal to ceramics to glass art, the heat of fire is recorded in the resulting objects. The Exchange Gallery asks makers to submit their fire-made and fire-inspired art in the hottest show of the year.
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OPEN-CALL SHOW: “Efforts at Imitation”
Show runs Monday, July 27th, through Friday, September 6th
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“Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery – it’s the sincerest form of learning.” – G. B. Shaw
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“Amateurs borrow, professionals steal.” – John Lennon (who apparently stole it from T. S. Eliot, who said “Amateur poets borrow; mature poets steal.”)
For this exhibition, the Exchange gallery will showcase artwork that mimics the look of famous works of art or is created in the style of a well-known artist. You may make an earnest attempt to recreate a masterpiece, or a parody of one, or put a new spin on an old classic, or any other interpretation.
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OPEN-CALL SHOW: “Parks and Recreation”
Show runs Monday, September 8th, through Friday, October 17th
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Outdoor recreation is one of Pennsylvania’s major industries. How do we as artists commemorate and celebrate the shared spaces that we all recreate in? Stay tuned for a more complete call for entries coming soon.
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“Susquehanna Greenway Partnership photo contest winners”
Show runs Monday, October 20th, through Friday, November 21st
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For the third time, the Exchange Gallery hosts the winners of SGP’s annual photo contest, which YOU can enter. Find out more here.
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OPEN-CALL SHOW: “Cash & Carry XII”
Show runs Monday, November 24th, through Tuesday, December 30th
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We'll give away hundreds of panels again.
​Please submit this form with your work.
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You as artist/lender bear sole responsibility for insuring your own work. Neither the Exchange nor its volunteers nor employees may be held liable for any loss or damage to the artwork on loan. Neither an exhibitor nor any representative(s) thereof shall be a party to any legal action against The Exchange, its board of directors, its employees, or its volunteers arising out of any such loss or damage to personal property or personal injury. When you drop off your work, you must sign a gallery loan agreement to this effect.
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We use photographs of artwork for promoting the exhibitions here; on the form, you may choose to have your work not photographed.
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The Exchange Gallery takes a 20% commission on sales, meaning the artist receives 80% of the sale price of a piece. You may choose to donate more than 20% -- and up to 100% -- of the sale price to the Gallery. All income from sales goes directly to keeping the lights on here.
Any work not picked up one month after the end on an exhibition will be considered abandoned and will be recycled.
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Exhibition Agreement:
You must certify that all work offered for exhibition, for sale, and/or for display at the Exchange is original and designed and executed by you or legally represented by you. You understand that The Exchange reserves the right to accept or reject any work for public display.
We look forward to having your work at the Exchange Gallery.
