CALL FOR ENTRIES
Interested in exhibiting your artwork with Monmouth Arts?
Check out this page for our current opportunities!
Location: 99 Monmouth St, Red Bank, NJ
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Monmouth Arts invites its members to propose an exhibition in our event space and gallery at 99 Monmouth Street in Red Bank. Applications for five solo and small group exhibitions for 2025 are being accepted through December 6th. Please read through the guidelines below before submitting your application through Submittable, our free online application platform. If you have questions after reading the guidelines please contact Connie Isbell, Membership & Community Engagement Director at connie@monmoutharts.org.
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Artists who would like to submit to this opportunity may become members​ at the $40 artist rate.
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Deadline to submit: December 6, 2024
ArtSpace
Monmouth Arts invites the creative community of Monmouth County to submit works that explore the theme of Seen & Unseen as part of our annual member exhibition, to be held at Monmouth University’s Pollak Gallery, November 1 - December 11, 2025, with an opening reception on November 7th.
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Seen & Unseen is a call for artists to look more closely—not only at our surroundings but also at the inner landscapes we carry. It’s an invitation to recognize the presence and power of what is often left in the shadows.
In shedding light on what has been obscured—by history, by progress, or by the limits of perception—Seen & Unseen seeks to reclaim and reframe the narratives that shape Monmouth County’s cultural and emotional landscape. Through painting, sculpture, photography, video, and mixed media, we ask artists to consider: What do we overlook in our daily lives? What deserves to be remembered? And how do the spaces we inhabit mirror the spaces within us?
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The 2025 Charles Sills Memorial Group Art Exhibit: Seen & Unseen
Artists may draw from archival material, oral histories, urban exploration, memories, and introspection to uncover the stories embedded in places and people. Some may examine sites long erased from public consciousness—historic homes, shuttered institutions, or neighborhoods transformed by time. Others may choose to navigate the intangible: the private worlds of resilience, grief, spirituality, or psychological space.
This multidisciplinary exhibition will showcase the artists of Monmouth Arts whose works illuminate the forgotten, the hidden, and the quietly profound. From abandoned buildings and neglected corners of the landscape to the emotional terrain of personal memory and spiritual experience, we look forward to an exhibit that reveals the richness that often goes unnoticed.
Seen & Unseen will be guest curated by Vaune Peck, Director of Monmouth University’s Center for the Arts. Pollak Gallery is located in West Long Branch in the heart of Monmouth University’s beautiful campus, adjacent to Pollak Theatre. The gallery features regional artists and collaborates with community organizations on special exhibitions. It has also hosted special exhibits from private collectors and exhibitions curated by the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
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The Monmouth Arts annual member exhibit – now in its eighth year – is named for Dr. Charles Sills, who was a painter, sculptor, collector, and supporter of the arts. He retired from his role as the Chief of Surgery at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch in 2000. His work has been shown at many galleries in Monmouth County and he won awards from New York's Allied Artists of America as well as Knickerbocker Artists.
Those artists interested in submitting to Seen & Unseen must be current members of Monmouth Arts and agree to the exhibition guidelines. Artists who would like to become new members and submit may use the code SEEN to receive $10 off the $40 artist membership rate.
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Please contact Connie Isbell, Director of Membership & Community Engagement, with any questions at connie@monmoutharts.org or 732.212.1890 ext 101.
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Deadline: September 30, 2025
Monmouth Arts invites artists from New Jersey to submit applications for Stamped Stories, a series of postcards marking the Centennial Celebration of Red Bank’s Count Basie Center for the Arts, whose historic theater opened in 1926. New Jersey-based artists will be commissioned to create artwork representing each decade of the theater’s existence, from the 1920s to present day.
Each Stamped Stories postcard will focus on a specific decade while incorporating elements of the Count Basie Center for the Arts - the landmark marquee, the history, the performances, the community. The postcards will be printed and available monthly as well as in a commemorative set.​
Stamped Stories
Postcard images will be printed on 5"x7" cards, with the front being the art itself, and the back containing the title of the work, a 2-3 sentence synopsis and the Basie Center’s Centennial Celebration logo. Artist credit, website, and social media handles will be included. Artists and their work will also be showcased at www.thebasie.org/centennial.
Monmouth Arts shares a deep history with the Count Basie Center, which originally opened in 1926 as Reade’s Carlton theater. In 1973, an anonymous donor provided Monmouth Arts with funds to purchase the historic theater, renaming it as the Monmouth Arts Center. In 1984, the theater was renamed the Count Basie Theatre in honor of jazz icon and Red Bank native William “Count” Basie. In 1999, Monmouth Arts and the Basie separated into two nonprofit organizations so that each organization could better focus on its individual mission. In 2018, the Count Basie name was raised to represent the entirety of the Monmouth Street facility, which now contains a second venue, The Vogel, as well as the Grunin Arts and Education Building and the Turner Academy of the Arts.
The Stamped Stories project provides an opportunity for the two nonprofits to showcase area artists and present diverse interpretations of the history of the Monmouth Street performance venue throughout the decades.
We invite artists to draw inspiration for their designs from the various time periods, as well as notable events or cultural happenings that took place in the theater. Personal connections are also welcome, for example: Did your grandparents have their first date at the theater? Did you see your first concert or theatrical performance there? We’re looking for creative, beautiful, and interesting artworks, and we welcome all perspectives and interpretations for Stamped Stories.
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Please contact Connie Isbell, Director of Membership & Community Engagement with any questions at connie@monmoutharts.org or 732.212.1890 ext 101.
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Deadline: September 22, 2025