2025 Alumni Exhibition

Submissions will be accepted via this online form through Sunday, May 4, 2025.

• All CIA alumni working in any media, regardless of graduating major, are eligible to apply.
• Submit up to three (3) original works.
• Works must be available for the duration of the exhibition loan period: June 7 – August 8, 2025.
• There are no object size limitations for submissions, but consider transportation costs when selecting artworks to submit as participating artists are responsible for shipping costs over the provided shipping budget.
• Accepted file types include PNG and JPG, 20MB or less. Video and audio files must be submitted as a link (Youtube, Vimeo, etc.).
• Questions about the application can be directed to reinbergergallery@cia.edu. 

“In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.”
― Ernst Fischer

In the midst of more than 5 years of increasing economic, environmental, and political precarity across the globe, I remain ever curious about the ways in which artists might shine a light on these challenging issues and/or help us envision new ways forward.

For the purpose of this show, I define “political” as anything related to how our elected and appointed leaders do, or do not, center the human needs of their ostensibly-represented populace.

I see artists as those willing to speculate within the messy, yet critical frontlines of our future collective evolutionary trajectory.

To that aim, I intend to organize a show that demonstrates the breadth of human concerns that CIA Alum are witnessing and holding space for in 2025. Categories within this diverse chorus will be created based upon the work that is submitted, but ultimately those that deal with the concept of the personal as political will especially be considered.

I’ve included a reading list below, for your inspiration and reference.

Your submissions do not need to have been made within the recent past, as experience has taught me that artists consistently act early and often in their expressions of care and concern for the greater world around them.

But I would like you to consider when submitting: through your art, what image do you hold up as a way forward for humanity?

Suggested Reading:

• Adler, Nancy J. “Finding Beauty in a Fractured World: Art Inspires Leaders—Leaders Change the World.” Academy of Management Review, 2015. Vol. 40, No. 3, 480-494.
• Fischer, Ernst. The necessity of art. Verso: London, 2010.
• Meyer, Diane. “Interpreting Along the Deckled Edge: The Artist’s Place in Leadership.” Integral Leadership Review, October 2012.
• Vance, Carole S. “The War on Culture” Art in America, 47 (September 1989), 39-43.

Applicants will be notified via email no later than Monday, May 19 of the final status of their applications. Artists whose work is selected for the exhibition will receive instructions regarding next steps and the delivery of their artwork.

• Submissions are due by Sunday, May 4, 2025.
• Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by Monday, May 19, 2025.
• Accepted works are delivered to Reinberger Gallery by Monday, June 9, 2025.