Submit a Design for a Via Transilvanica Mile Marker
Call for Artwork
Corvin Art seeks designs for mile markers along the Via Transilvanica trail in Romania. The selected designs will be carved into mile-marking obelisks by local Romanian stone carvers. These obelisks will join the ones that have already been installed, to complete the signage along the last few hundred miles of the trail.
The jury will select 25 designs based on artistic merit, fit for the purpose, and technical feasibility. The decision of the jurors is final.
About Via Transilvanica
Via Transilvanica is a hiking trail that crosses Romania from Putna, in the northern historical region of Bucovina, across Transylvania, to the southwestern city of Drobeta-Turnu Severin, on the Danube River.
With a final length estimated at 1,400 km (approx. 890 miles), it passes through over 400 communities, villages, and towns. Currently, 1,100 km have been completed, and the rest is under development. The trail provides the traveler with a cross-section of the fascinating diversity of Transylvania. Every stage highlights a slightly different aspect of this land’s unique natural beauty, traditions, architecture, food, language, and culture.
Via Transilvanica was created and is developed by Tasuleasa Social Association.
Submission Requirements and Eligibility
- You may submit one design per entry. Entries are due by January 16, 2022. The entry fee is $25.
- The designs would ideally contain themes related to Transylvania, Romanian heritage, nature, ecology, or conservation.
- The following themes will not be accepted: violent or disturbing images, swearing, political or religious messaging, hateful or discriminatory themes, promotional messages, or self-promotion.
- All artwork must be original – you cannot use third-party artwork or materials in your work – this means that you cannot use anything that was created by someone else (especially if it is trademarked or restricted by the original artist).
- You must upload one to three high-quality images containing the information necessary for the carvers to execute the design. Examples of design submissions can be found below. Images taken with cell phones are suitable.
- You may include in your submission your artist’s statement, resume, and biography. If your design is selected, your artist information will be posted on Corvin Art’s website.
Timeline
- Application open: October 11, 2021
- Submittal deadline: January 16, 2022
- Acceptance announcement: February 21, 2022
Benefits
- You will become one of the very few artists whose design will be implemented and installed along Via Transilvanica!
- You will receive images of your installed design.
- Your work will be promoted via social media.
Examples of previous designs
Some of the mile markers already installed
Mile Marker technical feasibility considerations
- The mile marker is about 40 inches tall (the part above ground) and has a width and depth of about 10 inches (square cross-section). Because they are cut by hand, each mile marker is slightly different.
- Your design may not transfer identically; some changes may be needed to accommodate the material or the carving process. The stone carvers will do their best to stay true to your design.
- The designs should be suitable for carving into stone; they must preserve the integrity of the stone (e.g., no holes or excessive thinning of the obelisk), and have strong, clean lines that translate well into relief carving.
- The executed design must preserve the general shape of the mile marker. See the examples of previously installed markers above.
The Jury
Sonia Coman-Ernstoff, PhD
Dr. Sonia Coman-Ernstoff is the Audience Engagement Strategist at the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. In this role, Dr. Coman leads the museum’s Marketing and Communications team. She has had wide-ranging experience in strategic planning and the marketing of cultural products. Dr. Coman has a B.A. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, where she specialized in nineteenth-century French art as well as Japanese art. Her dissertation contributed new research on the circular influence of Japanese-inspired French ceramics on Japanese ceramics. Dr. Coman serves on the Editorial Board of Brill’s Journal of Japonisme and as co-editor of the De Gruyter Series in Organizational and Management History. She is a regular contributor to Smarthistory, the most visited digital art history resource in the world, and the author of interdisciplinary articles and chapters on identity formation in the creative industries, cross-cultural exchange, the history of collecting, and cultural networks.
Liz Adams
Liz is an American figurative painter based in Paris, France. She received her BFA in Drawing and Painting at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. She continued her studies in New York at the Art Students League and the National Academy School of Fine Arts, focusing on classical life drawing and painting. A winner of the Newington Cropsey Foundation for the Arts Scholarship Program in Florence, Italy, Liz studied the rich art history of the Renaissance. After her studies, she taught painting at the Art Students League, the Art Center New York and privately. In 2015 Liz was a recipient of the prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields grant for figurative artists. She has participated in artist residencies in New York and Vietnam. Her paintings have been exhibited across the United States, Canada, France and Vietnam. Liz’s commissioned portraits are in numerous private collections. In 2020 Liz was granted a French Talent Visa for artists and relocated to Paris where she works out of her studio. In addition to exhibiting her work, she currently teaches an Online Art Mentorship program.
Margot Bernstein
Margot Bernstein is a lecturer in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, where she completed a doctoral dissertation entitled “Carmontelle’s Profile Pictures and the Things that Made Them Modern” in 2020. She is a specialist in eighteenth-century French art and material culture.
Cristian Ianculescu
(technical advisor)
Cristian is a sculptor, photographer, and painter born in Romania, in the southwestern part of Transylvania. His early mentors were his maternal grandfather, an accomplished photographer, and painter Richard Mantu, one of Romania’s celebrated artists. He studied painting with Natasha Mokina and Leslie Exton, and sculpture with Charles Flickinger at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. He participated in several solo and collaborative art exhibits and shows. He is a technology consultant by training and resides in the Washington DC metropolitan area.
Tășuleasa Social
Tășuleasa Social is a 20-year-old organization with a mission of promoting youth volunteering, community building, respect for nature, and civic engagement.
Copyright
The submitted designs are the intellectual property of the artist.
Artists whose designs are selected will be asked to enter a legal agreement with Tășuleasa Social, the Romanian nonprofit that created and manages Via Transilvanica. This agreement will grant Tășuleasa Social full rights to use the artwork for the sole purpose of creating the mile-marking obelisks. Images of selected designs will be retained by Corvin Art for promotional and educational purposes. Acknowledgment of the artist will be made in all such uses.