In this election year, Mystic Museum of Art (MMoA)’s curatorial theme is Pathways, exploring the unconventional means by which artists have achieved creative careers, when the path of convention is not open to them. The artists exhibited this year have overcome obstacles due to their race (Printmaking and the Unconventional Pathways of African American Artists), gender (Women of Mystic), age (Young at Art and One World Project: Architecture from Around the World), and the perception of art versus craft (Making the Cut: Chairs by Design). Inspired by their example, MMoA’s year of Pathways culminates in a juried exhibition of the same name.

Artists are invited to explore their own pathways to their art. What barriers have you come up against? What journeys have brought you to where you are now, figuratively or metaphorically? Open to myriad interpretations, from family histories of migration to favorite hiking trails to literature such as the poetry of Robert Frost, this call to artists welcomes all media, including photography. No AI artwork will be accepted.

Entry forms should be filled out and submitted online prior to the receiving dates of October 20 and 21. Artists are encouraged to draft a short statement (100 words or less) of their interpretation of the exhibition theme to be included on the labels of accepted works.