Deadline to Submit: April 22, 2024

The Trolley Barn Gallery is pleased to open the call for Earth’s Reflection, an international juried exhibition that recontextualizes the Trolley Barn Gallery’s 3,000-square-foot space into a progressive and thought-provoking landscape. This exhibition will focus on artistic interpretations of pollution prevention including themes of environmental activism and urban revitalization. Artists exploring themes inspired by the Earth, ecology, geology and biology, regreening, native lands, and community stewardship are encouraged to apply. 

Earth’s Reflection is open to all visual media: interdisciplinary, multimedia, installation, contemporary, crafts, video art, soundscapes/sound art, performance art, and design in 2D and 3D. Artists working with trash, sound, video, and/or performance are encouraged to submit. For this exhibition, the Trolley Barn Gallery will bring together a compassionate roster of artists who specialize in work that brings attention to pollution prevention in a way that offers solutions for one of humanity’s most pressing global crises. 

Youth employed in The Art Effect’s curatorial training and community engagement programs are venturing into youth-led climate change activism and placekeeping. To support the continuous exchange of ideas and resources, youth will collaborate with community organizations and Hudson-Valley-based artists who utilize unconventional and up-cycled materials in their work. Youth Arts Empowerment Zone Liaisons and the Trolley Barn Curatorial Team will host a number of community clean-ups throughout the exhibition. Poughkeepsie youth will promote, educate, and create community discourse around the ideas of pollution prevention through a public art exhibition and related environmental educational programming. With the support of local artists and community leaders, the youth curators will equip themselves with the skills to become environmental leaders who can think outside the box and inspire collective action and upkeeping in our local community.

This exhibition will be open during the Hudson Valley’s Upstate Art Weekend – June 18 through 21 – for educational, family-friendly exhibition events and activities. Upstate Art Weekend is a connective annual event for locals and tourists to celebrate the cultural vibrancy of upstate New York. With 145 participants and thousands of visitors in 2022, the Trolley Barn Gallery is excited to, once again, be one of many fascinating organizations, galleries, and creative projects to join Upstate Art Weekend. 

Reviewed by Chanel Reed

One of the youngest artists to exhibit a solo show at a substantial museum in New York, Oscar yi Hou: East of sun, west of moon, has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum from October 14, 2022 – September 17, 2023. The Brooklyn Museum is located at 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York, built on the land that is a part of an ancestral homeland of the Lenape (Delaware) people. The museum holds excellence in exhibitions, programs, collections, and visitor experience, challenging traditionally common art history by including multiple perspectives in creations. 

Drawing was something that yi Hou had close to his heart ever since he was young. Mass culture in TV shows, such as animes and cartoons, stimulated his artistic flow. The exhibition, East of sun, west of moon, embodied 11 portraits with specific details representing East Asian and Western history, such as Son Goku from the popular anime Dragon Ball, Chinese descendants, and his close friends. Along with the figurative symbolism comes fragmented collages of art with vibrant and poppy so-called “Chinese cowboy” iconography, Chinese calligraphy, and popular imagery. Yi Hou embraces the Asian community, the queer community, the reclamation of slurs, and the complexity of himself through illustrative paintings.

Electricity shocked my body once I stepped into this exhibition. I was blown away by the unique style of Yi Hou’s work. It’s hard for me to find an artist with such incredibly complex work that I am invested in. It had a feel of organized chaos to it, where my eyes wandered everywhere because of the rich hues and hidden details I hadn’t picked up yet. As a fellow artist who develops work with the help of online references, the connections interlocked. His art inspires me to create art that breaks my style apart to recreate something outstanding with great detail and meaning. It also motivates me to keep on drawing from what influences me the most; anime/ Japanese culture and the queer community into complex concepts. 

Learn more at www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/oscar_yi_hou

Deadline to Submit: November 26, 2023

In this episode, the Trolley Barn Gallery is calling artists from all over the globe to celebrate anime, manga, and comic books through a fun, vibrant exhibition of art inspired by Japanese anime and manga.  

We want artists to embrace that “main character energy” and show us what your anime universe would look like. We are accepting art in every medium including: short animated films, comic strips, comic books, sketchbooks, pages torn out of sketchbooks, original concept art, tattoo designs, digital art, illustrations, nondescript amorphous blobs that remind you of your favorite anime hero … and anything else that is 2D or 3D. But!! We are not taking any NSFW content. No gore, no sexual content – just good, clean cartoon fun.

Art of all ages welcome! This exhibition will come with a series of ‘side quests’ events: a cosplay contest, an anime movie night, and a “How to Draw Comics” workshop. 

Who will exhibit in the show? Will the youth curators overcome societal norms and change the gallery world forever? And what’s that thing?! For answers to these thrilling questions and more, tune in this Spring for the newest Trolley Barn Gallery International Juried Exhibition!

Deadline to Submit: November 26, 2023

View the Call and Submit Your Work Here

Deadline to Submit: January 16, 2024

The PKX Exhibition celebrates imaginative and original artworks created by young people who have a passion for their medium. If you feel your work is too weird, too different, or too crazy – it’s perfect for this exhibition – where teen artists take the lead on taking art in a new direction. 

2D & 3D ART: View the Call and Submit Your Work Here

The 2024 PKX Festival (fka Reel Exposure) features youth-produced short films – narrative, animation, experimental, and documentary – created by talented young artists, ages 13-19 from across the world. All genres of short films under 10 minutes will be accepted. Films should be appropriate for PG13 audience.

FILM: View the Call and Submit Your Work Here

Deadline to Submit: January 16, 2024

Deadline to Submit: May 20, 2023

Introducing “The Highs of Life,” an international juried exhibition now accepting submissions with a focus on deconstructing synthetic joy.

Beyond the black mirror of instagram-worthy moments and snapchat filters, is our real life – our real smile. We are interested in the moments that never made it to social media. This exhibition seeks to decipher sacred and treasured art from images where people are hiding behind their “happiness”. Social media is often a sparkly, pink fog; a false reality of love, adventure and interest. Help us understand the intentions behind the real and imagined highs of life. 

We are not only accepting photographic images, but any visual representation of joy; based in fantasy or reality. “The Highs of Life” encourages artists to submit art in an array of media, including digital, film, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, video, and installation art. For our juried exhibitions, the Trolley Barn Gallery brings together an international roster of vital voices in art and culture, presenting thought-provoking artwork and ideas in a renovated industrial space that is the hub for the area’s thriving arts scene.

Deadline to Submit EXTENDED: May 20, 2023

View the Call and Submit Your Work Here

The International Teen Photo and Film Festival strikes again.

Thank you to all who attended PKX Reel Exposure Festival last weekend! It was so great to celebrate the best of youth creativity from around the world, right here in downtown Poughkeepsie. 

You can view the photography exhibition at the Trolley Barn Gallery through June 16, and you can view the films here: https://thearteffect.org/tae-events/pkx/

Special thanks to our event sponsors for your essential support: Central Hudson, McCabe & Mack, Hudson Valley Credit Union, VISITvortex, FastSigns, Chronogram, Rhinebeck Bank, Hudson Valley Magazine, Adams Fairacre Farms, Poughkeepsie Galleria, and La Voz.

Deadline to Submit: May 20, 2023

Introducing “The Highs of Life,” an international juried exhibition now accepting submissions with a focus on deconstructing synthetic joy.

Beyond the black mirror of instagram-worthy moments and snapchat filters, is our real life – our real smile. We are interested in the moments that never made it to social media. This exhibition seeks to decipher sacred and treasured art from images where people are hiding behind their “happiness”. Social media is often a sparkly, pink fog; a false reality of love, adventure and interest. Help us understand the intentions behind the real and imagined highs of life. 

We are not only accepting photographic images, but any visual representation of joy; based in fantasy or reality. “The Highs of Life” encourages artists to submit art in an array of media, including digital, film, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, video, and installation art. For our juried exhibitions, the Trolley Barn Gallery brings together an international roster of vital voices in art and culture, presenting thought-provoking artwork and ideas in a renovated industrial space that is the hub for the area’s thriving arts scene.

Deadline to Submit EXTENDED: May 20, 2023

View the Call and Submit Your Work Here

Dondre Green, the Guest Curator for the Reel Exposure Teen Photo Exhibition

Dondre Green is a New York-based, Bronx-born Photographer and multidisciplinary artist––specializing in portraiture, documentary and storytelling work. He’s the founder and creative director of Bronx Narratives, a publication that highlights local stories within his community.

Our team is excited to collaborate with Dondre on the upcoming Reel Exposure Photo Exhibition!

The Art Effect’s annual Reel Exposure International Teen Film and Photography Festival in Poughkeepsie, NY is celebrating its 10th year! This year’s festival features photography and youth-produced short films – narrative, animation, experimental and documentary – created by talented young artists from across the world. New for 2023, Reel Exposure will be brought to you by The Art Effect’s PKX Festival, an exciting building block to the development of the Youth Arts Empowerment Zone, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant, establishing a youth-led arts district in and around the Gallery. In addition to youth-produced short films, and a photography exhibition, Reel Exposure: A PKX Festival will also feature youth-led public art installations and more. For more information and schedule, click here!

As the Photography Exhibition aspect of Reel Exposure, professional and youth jurors selected photographs from submissions from teens ages 13-19 across the world. In the past, submissions have come from Singapore, Italy, Islamic Republic of Iran, and the United States. Opening with a public reception on May 5, this exciting youth exhibition remains on display at the Trolley Barn Gallery from May 5 – June 16, 2023.

View the full Reel Exposure: A PKX Festival Schedule here!

Dr. Kheli Willetts, the Guest Curator for The Highs of Life Exhibition coming this summer!

Dr. Kheli Willetts is Principal and Founder of Dira Professional Development, LLC. Dira provides tailored consulting services offering proven experience in the following areas, Individual and Cohort Coaching, Governance and Operations and Programming and Community Engagement.

Prior to starting her own firm, Dr. Willetts was Director of Professional Development at Mid-America Arts Alliance (MAAA) and cohort coaching and programming for small to midsize arts and cultural organizations as well as practicing artists. Before relocating to Texas in 2016, she was the Executive Director of Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) and Professor of Practice of African American Art History and Film in the Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University, in Syracuse, New York.

Dr. Willetts has consulted with several organizations including The Wallace Foundation, Black Box Press Foundation, The Bullock Texas State History Museum, Jazz Houston, and WolfBrown Consulting. She currently serves as the Vice President of IDEA for Texas Association of Museum Council and the Steering Committee for Houston’s BIPOC Arts Network and Fund.

Her previous board service included Association of African American Museums, New York Consortium of Museums and Art Centers, and Houston Center for Photography. Dr. Willetts continues experience as a grants panelist includes several arts and culture organizations including, Institute of Museum and Library Services, New York State Council on the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, and the Houston Arts Alliance (HAA).

We are so honored and excited to be working with her on our upcoming summer exhibition!

View the Artist Call and Submit Your Work Here