The Grief Deck: An Open Call for Visual Artists

We are calling artists and grief workers of all traditions, disciplines, and backgrounds to contribute original visual artwork and text-based ‘grief prompts’ to the Artist’s Grief Deck project: an artist-generated toolkit for processing loss in the age of Covid-19. Artists rooted in those BIPOC communities that have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19 are especially encouraged to apply.

In partnership with the NYC Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NYCVOAD), we are mobilizing artists as ‘second responders’ to the ongoing global pandemic. Covid-19 has challenged our capacities as humans not only by causing so much loss - of life, livelihood, certainty - but also by robbing humans of the ability to come together in safety and community to grieve these losses. Disaster relief organizations have identified this as one of the major unmet needs of the pandemic response: the ability to grieve together, in order to heal, find meaning, and grow.

The Grief Deck is going to be a 50-card set of large format ‘flashcards,’ each one pairing original visual artwork on one side and text-based prompts for personal ritual actions on the other.

We are seeking original visual artwork suitable for a deck of 4” x 6” ‘flashcard’ style cards. The subject does not need to be explicitly themed on grief and loss, but work that invites reflection, meditation, mindfulness, close inspection, or time-taking. The work may be related to the grief prompt text on the opposite side directly or not. (You can submit only artwork and it will be curatorially paired with a text.)

We are also seeking ‘grief prompts’ for the reverse side: short text directions for a simple, personal, processual or memorial action that can be taken in relation to the artwork, and which can offer mindfulness, memory, comfort, or time to reflect. Grief workers and specialists in memorial-making recognize that one of the most important parts of making a memorial is that it gives us something to do. The Grief Deck will contain dozens of such actions that the user can enact again and again, in combination or one at a time, and with which they can mark time, grieve loss, and feel the community of humans reaching out to them and experiencing this loss in common.

For some examples of image/text combinations, visit our Kickstarter campaign or follow the project on Instagram @artistsgriefdeck

Artists have always played a role in our rituals, traditions, and meaning-making. Covid-19 presents a new challenge to us, by requiring us to draw from all our traditions, history, rituals, and ways of knowing, and adapting it to a new world where gathering is a risk, and loss is so often experienced alone.

Artists are encouraged to submit both visual work and prompts as text, or may submit only one or the other. These will be curated and selected into a printed deck of 50 cards, as well as an expanded online platform where the artwork and prompts can be viewed in an accessible website.

FIRST DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 9

This is for consideration to be included in the printed deck. ARTISTS CHOSEN FOR INCLUSION IN THE PRINTED DECK WILL RECEIVE A $250 HONORARIUM.

(Artists in this round are also invited to donate the original work, or prints, for donor rewards toward the crowdfunding campaign that is funding this project.)