Mail Art Project
The Mail Art Project is inspired by the 2023 IA National Gathering theme, Radical Reckoning: Invoking the Elements for Collective Change. IA members can register to participate by March 22, 2024.
This project is open to all IA members – faculty, staff, and students. Participation is free, and we will mail you a small kit with instructions, a prompt, and a few art supplies and materials to get started.
The Prompt
Reckoning is the practice of taking full account. It requires digging down to the roots—to be radical. While radical reckoning may unearth uncomfortable truths, past harms, and the origins of ongoing injustices, it also reveals the foundations of enduring cultural heritage, creative ecological adaptation, and the sources of physical and spiritual sustenance.
We encourage you to reflect on the following questions as you create work for this mail art project:
How does the work of reckoning appear in your life — perhaps through deep listening, care for others, reflection of current practices, or through reconnection to land and place?
How do the elements of fire, water, earth, and air inspire collaboration, offer new lessons and approaches, or demonstrate how the process of reckoning is both reflective and active?
- View the Mail Art Project 2022 Submissions, “Rituals of Repair and Renewal”
- View the Mail Art Project 2021 Submissions, “Water Ways and Movements“
What to expect
Mail art, or correspondence art, traditionally has been a way for individuals to create and send small-scale works of art through the postal service. A variety of media can be used in mail art, including: paper, postcards, found or recycled images and objects, stamps, paint, photographs, music, poetry, or anything else that can be put in an envelope and sent via post.
We invite you to use whatever materials you might have at hand, as well as the art supplies and materials included in the kit, to create artwork inspired by the theme and prompt above.
Once your artwork is complete, rather than mail it back, please share a photograph and description for inclusion in a digital display on the IA website. Please submit your artwork here, no later than June 1, 2024.
2024 Timeline
- February 1 – March 22: Registration open
- March 22 – 30: Mail art project kits sent out via mail
- April 1 – May 31: Creative artmaking
- June 1: Deadline to submit photo, description, and any reflections to IA (submit here)
Registration
Interested in participating? Register here before March 22, 2024.
Funding has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
