2019 BDA Prize Winners Outdoor Exhibition

The outdoor exhibition is live at 2nd Street SE, across from Live Arts and Second Street Gallery. We’d like to thank all of our entrants for providing such stimulating material, our jurors for their thoughtful feedback and evaluation, and several organizations and companies that made the outdoor exhibition possible: Gropen, Inc. for generously printing the banners, Dewberry Charlottesville for allowing us to post on their site, the African American Heritage Center for hosting the main exhibition and panel discussion, and the Bridge PAI and the Charlottesville Mural Project for providing logistical support, materials, space, and labor throughout this process.

Competition

05/06/2019 Update: The exhibition has closed and entries are available for pick up Bushman Dreyfus Architects (820 E High St, Charlottesville, VA, 22902). If you are driving, please park in the reserved spots with the red Bushman Dreyfus logo. Entries not picked up by Wednesday, May 22nd will be discarded.
04/12/2019 Update: Congratulations to our BDA Prize 2019 winners! See the gallery here.
03/25/2019 Update: The jury selection has been announced below.
02/28/2019 Update: The online gallery of entries is now available for viewing.

The BDA Prize, an annual design and ideas competition, is established to generate forward-looking ideas to better our community through design and dialogue. The 2019 theme, INVISIBLE C’VILLE, calls for imaginative and provocative works on paper that distill an invisible quality, system, or story that defines Charlottesville.

In the novel Invisible Cities, we think Marco Polo is describing fifty-five amazing cities he encountered in his travels – until we realize he is describing a single city, his hometown, Venice, in fifty-five different ways.

As Calvino’s Marco Polo does for Venice, the BDA Prize asks you to dissect, identify, amplify, distill, and describe a generally overlooked but essential quality, system, spatial practice, experience or story that characterizes Charlottesville.

What is your take on the ethos of our town?
What would your personal x-ray of our town reveal?
What stories are untold?
What narratives are unresolved?
What is holding us back?
What is great and will propel us into the future?
Is this a city proud of its “History” or one that would rather not talk about its multiple, contested histories?
Whose voices are broadcast, discussed, and allowed to make a difference?

Your competition entry will be a single original image on paper 20” x 30” (76.2 x 50.8 cm) coupled with a short companion text of 1000 characters or less.

The goal of INVISIBLE C’VILLE is to create a kaleidoscopic view of our community. “Real” Charlottesville emerges from individual truths overlaid, overlapped, uncovered, and expressed. We are looking for imaginative, compelling, beautiful, and provocative work executed with clarity and conviction.

Out of many, one.

To get you started thinking:

- – The Novel Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino, Harvest/HBJ, 1972.

- – Behance – search term “Invisible Cities”

– Art Inspired by Calvino’s book
– Rebecca Solnit on alternative mapping

“However the city may really be, beneath this thick coating of signs, whatever it may contain or conceal, you leave Tamara without having discovered it.”

Awards

There will be an eighth award of $1000 selected by public voting on April 10th, 5:00-6:00 p.m.

All entries will be exhibited at The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.

“Raissa, a city of sadness that nonetheless contains a happy city unaware of its existence.”

Requirements

Any media on paper is welcome: drawing, painting, collage, or mapping. Works may be original or a reproduction of your original. Your single image is required to be a twenty by thirty inch paper in landscape format. Your required accompanying text will be submitted electronically, and printed by The BDA Prize to accompany your piece in an exhibit.

All ages are encouraged to participate.

Additional rules and requirements can be found here.

“A description of Zaira as it is today should contain all Zaira’s past.”

Jury

Beth Meyer is a registered landscape architect, former Dean of the UVA School of Architecture, a member of the US Commission of Fine Arts, and founder of the UVA Center for Cultural Landscapes, a trans-disciplinary initiative focused on developing a vision of cities and countrysides as complex records of social and ecological processes and encounters.

Bernard Hankins is a philosopher, musician, spoken word poet, and creative catalyst. Originally from Chesapeake, VA, he currently lives in Charlottesville where he teaches workshops on creative identity-inspiring others to discover their ultimate purpose. In 2015, Bernard was the Tedx Charlottesville Open Mic winner and Tedx Charlottesville closing speaker.

Lauren A. McQuistion graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and the University of California Berkeley with a Master of Architecture. She has worked professionally in Virginia, California, and Michigan drawing on her diverse experiences across the country to bring new perspectives to architectural practice and design dedicated to community-engaged processes. Her work with the design collective wOS has been recognized nationally including an Honorable Mention in the Storefront for Art and Architecture’s Taking Buildings Down Competition and as the 2018 BDA Prize Grand Prize Winner. She is currently pursuing her PhD in the Constructed Environment at the University of Virginia.

Ézé Amos is a documentary photographer and photojournalist based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Ézé is the Spring 2018 New City Artist-in-Residence.

In 2008, Ézé immigrated to Charlottesville from Nigeria to join his partner Kristina, a writer and community organizer. As a young adult in Nigeria, Ézé trained in the sciences but secretly nurtured a passion for photography. He initially discovered the craft by stumbling on a beat-up book in a library, then eventually repaired a broken camera and shot his first rolls of black and white film. Those rolls were among the few possessions he brought with him to the US. When Ézé finally had a chance to develop the film, he discovered images that he still cherishes and displays today.

Ézé became a proud US citizen in 2014, the same year he fulfilled his dream of launching a professional photography business. Whether he’s shooting weddings and family events, partnering with organizations and media outlets, or just out walking with his camera, Ézé loves capturing people at their most authentic.

His current projects include a street photography project (#cvillepeopleeveryday) and documenting local resistance actions over the past several years. Ézé’s work is regularly featured in Cville Weekly and Edible Blue Ridge, and his images have also been published by the Washington Post, CNN, AP, and Reuters.

Ézé is a graduate of the University of Ibadan. He has served the local community as an EMT, Firefighter, and Human Rights Commissioner. When he’s not working, you’ll find Ézé out and about town with his five-year-old daughter Amaka.

Adrienne Oliver is an enthusiastic, creative, and positive professional, with diverse and dynamic experience across industries.

With a varied background in communication, personal and professional coordination, theatre and film production management, and performance, I consistently demonstrate grace under fire. Skilled in empowerment and development of others through conflict resolution and crisis management.

Currently: Positive educator skilled in culturally responsive teaching, arts-integrated practices, and social-emotional skill-building. Experience with all elementary content areas and secondary English with particular focus in project-based learning, design thinking, and culturally responsive teaching. Teacher-mentor + coach supporting development of transformational instructional practices. Holistic-minded consultant for mothers and families. Arts consultant for non-profit theatres, event production and coordination organizations, and individuals.

Certified by VDOE, Elementary Education (K-5), Middle School English (6-8), English Language Arts (6-12); LDOE, Elementary Education (K-6).

Moderator

Alan Goffinski is the director of The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative and The Charlottesville Mural Project. He spends his nine-to-five facilitating, devising and implementing inventive ways use art as a catalyst for social change and meaningful connection.

“What is the aim of a city under construction…? Where is the plan you are following, the blueprint?'”

Key Dates

February 11, 2019
Deadline for Entries
Entries must be received by 5pm EST

February 26, 2019
Exhibition of all Entries at The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center

March 1, 2019
First Fridays formal opening reception at The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center
5pm – 7pm

April 10, 2019
Announcement of winners and panel discussion co-hosted by Tom Tom Founders Festival
Doors open at 5pm

May 4, 2019
Exhibition of all entries closes

May 8 – 22
Entries available for pick up at Bushman Dreyfus Architects
Entries not picked up will be discarded