Art Port Kingston Open Call: Garden of Delights

ArtPort Kingston is an evolving contemporary art center in based in the Hudson Valley; our new location is 80 Smith Ave in midtown Kingston, NY. ArtYard is our newest project where many events happen outside in the courtyard.

We aim to create art experiences that offer unconventional interactions with contemporary art to a wide range of audiences. We work with artists to transform unorthodox art spaces into imaginative, user-friendly platforms that defy genre and often lend to playful, engaging relationships with the artworks.

Through art exhibitions, curatorial projects  performances, gatherings, and beyond, ArtPort Kingston supports the creative community of the Hudson Valley and beyond serving as a harbor at the confluence of art and community.

ArtPort Kingston is a certified 501c3 non-profit arts organization.

In an age defined by constant movement and digital overload, Garden of Delights offers a creative sanctuary of slowness and playfulness—a space to reconnect with nature, community, and the tactile joys of artistic creations. This outdoor exhibition transforms a field of tarmac in the center of Kingston into an oasis with the “Garden” as a concept for an exhibition of dynamic, living artworks celebrating the intersection of art, horticulture, sustainability, and humanity’s rightful place in the natural world.

Garden of Delights features a cross-pollination of perspectives and mediums that combine to blur the lines between aesthetic and function. The exhibition equally prioritizes interactive sculptures, as it does mobile garden beds, irrigation systems, fountains, and dedicated spaces for private contemplation and communal gathering. These diverse forms and artworks combine to highlight the social and environmental value of green spaces in blighted urban contexts, offering a model for building sustainable, nature-centric values into our cities for the benefit of all. The result is a responsive, ever-evolving landscape and participatory art space.

The exhibition will evolve in three stages: Seeding (Summer 2025), Rooting (Fall 2025), and Blooming (Spring 2026). Each of these three phases will host distinct public offerings and a rotating exhibition of artworks, aligning with the various phases of life and death in the garden. Public programming will include monthly performances, film screenings, and youth workshops that aim to foster ongoing public dialogue and local participation.

When you step into Garden of Delights you experience the possibilities of beauty and utility in alignment, where art and nature are equally alive, and where the simple act of being at the confluence of these two influences restores the spirit. Through the integration of art and nature, Garden of Delights offers the City of Kingston a new community resource that will continue to grow, offer nourishment freely, display resilience when we need its example, and provide a slow, immersive experience to contrast the face-paced rhythms of modern life, accessible to those who need it most, and for all.

We welcome submissions from artists, designers, performers, poets, musicians, makers, farmers, and thinkers from all backgrounds. Whether your practice is rooted in planting art practice, environmental art, installation, playground or huge bird house building, performance, sculpture, community-driven initiatives, or experimental design, we encourage you to propose work that reflects your unique perspective on magical garden, community, ecology, nature, and sustainability.

Deadline for Proposals: Saturday, March 15th, 2025, 11:59PM EST

Notification of Selected Artists: Late March- Early April, 2025

Interviews and Proposal Discussions: Late March 2025 (to discuss production, funding, and logistics)

Opening of the Exhibition: May 2025

Fee: $15

We look forward to receiving your creative proposals and to creating a vibrant, joyful space for art and nature to come together!

Website link: https://artportkingston.org/