---
title: "Call for artists"
description: "A public invitation to artists to apply for a commission, setting out the project, site, budget, timeline, and how submissions will be judged."
glossary: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary"
source: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/call-for-artists"
---

# Call for artists

> A public invitation to artists to apply for a commission, setting out the project, site, budget, timeline, and how submissions will be judged.

Glossary: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary  
Source: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/call-for-artists

Calls come in three forms: open (anyone eligible may apply), invitational
(a curated shortlist is asked to respond), and direct selection (one artist
is approached, usually for small budgets or urgent timelines). Open calls
maximize discovery; invitational calls save everyone's time when the field
is genuinely known.

The quality of a call is easy to judge: it states the budget as a number, the
selection criteria as a list, and pays finalists for any concept work it asks
of them. Calls that hide the budget or request free design work get weaker
pools, because experienced artists skip them.

Related terms: [Request for qualifications (RFQ)](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/request-for-qualifications), [Request for proposals (RFP)](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/request-for-proposals), [Selection panel](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/selection-panel), [Honorarium](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/honorarium)