Foot in the Door 5: The Virtual Exhibition
November 1, 2020 – January 10, 2021
online
Free Exhibition
Held once every 10 years, “Foot in the Door” is an open exhibition for all Minnesota artists. Now marking its fourth decade, this exhibition celebrates the talent, diversity, and enthusiasm of Minnesota’s visual artists. This is an important event for the arts community and a great opportunity for artists to display their work at Mia. The sole curatorial criteria? Each submission must fit within one cubic foot.New this year, the exhibition is going virtual! In order to prioritize safety, this exhibition will be completely digital to accommodate the huge number of participating artists and visitors.
All artwork will be accepted as long as the work meets the following submission requirements.
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- • The artist must reside in the state of Minnesota at the time of submission.
• Each artist is invited to submit one work of art.
• One submission form will need to be filled out per artist/artwork.
• The artist can be any age as long as they consider themselves an artist. If the artist is under the age of 13, a parent or guardian will need to sign off on the form.
• Each artwork is limited to one cubic foot. For example, a two-dimensional work (including frame) cannot extend beyond a 12 x 12-inch square; a three-dimensional work (including the base) must fit within a 12-inch cube.
• For ease of online exhibition experience, we will not be including and uploading time-based and video works this year.
• All artworks must be photographed to be included in this digital exhibition. Artists will upload an image of the artwork into the submission form. Images must have a 1:1 aspect ratio, and we recommend at least 2000×2000 pixels. Files must be jpg or png and may not exceed 10MB in size.
• All submissions require the artist’s permission for digital display in Mia’s online exhibition platform.
• Mia reserves the right to not accept any artworks that promote hate speech, or pose a threat to another person or persons.
• Artworks will be accepted until the exhibition reaches max capacity of 5,000 or through September 28.
• Artwork will be accepted for digital display only and will not be for sale.
History of “Foot in the Door” Exhibitions
The first “Foot in the Door Show” was the brainchild of the Artist Panel of the Minneapolis Artist Exhibition Program (MAEP), a curatorial program of Mia dedicated to exhibiting and supporting artists living and working in Minnesota. Early MAEP critics had expressed concern that the artist-run program would “let anyone into the museum.” The panel’s response was to do just that—invite all Minnesota artists to join the “Foot in the Door Show,” as long as each work was no larger than one cubic foot.
In 1980, the first “Foot in the Door” featured work by 740 artists. It was a fantastic success—a whirlwind of images and ideas coalescing into one gallery. And so was born an arts community event. In 1990, “The Other Foot in the Door Show” grew to include works by nearly 900 artists. By 2000, the exhibition featured the work of over 1,700 artists. In 2010, “Foot in the Door 4” officially became the state’s largest art exhibition, presenting nearly 5,000 works; these included video and multimedia works.
