In celebration of Artists Month, we’re putting out a call for entries to you — our creative audience — to create and submit a piece of artwork that best reflects you. We’re looking for expressions of identity and creativity here: Perhaps it’s a self-portrait, or a photograph of a beloved object, a diorama scene, or a collage of found objects. Prizes will be awarded to all who enter, but the further along you advance in the competition, the better the goods you’ll win!

We were inspired by the docs airing this month and the artists they celebrate: Vik Muniz’s portraits made with garbage in Waste Land; the graffiti artwork in Tamra Davis’s Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child; and Mark Hogancamp’s spectacularly evocative photographs of his entirely original universe in the film Marwencol. In that spirit, we created this contest to celebrate that original vision in you, our raison d’etre.

Guidelines

• Entries should be created with found objects at minimal to zero cost

• A JPEG of the artwork must be emailed to ILartistsmonth@itvs.org by noon PST on Monday, April 18.

• A brief caption (200 words or fewer) must be included, describing your artwork and what inspired you.

• Contestants must include their full mailing address in order to receive prizes.

Prizes

• All who submit will automatically be mailed an original 24 x 19-inch Independent Lens season poster featuring the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

• Finalists, announced on Tuesday, April 19 will receive a poster of the Oscar-nominated film Waste Land autographed by Director Lucy Walker.

• Art by our finalists will be opened for a popular vote on our blog.

• The Runner Up will receive a signed print by Mark Hogancamp, subject of Marwencol

• The Grand Prize winner will be profiled on our website Tuesday, April 26, and will receive a one-of-a-kind original painting from outsider artist Mikey Welsh (former bassist for the band Weezer).

Really, you can’t lose by entering, but you could win a lot of unique prizes that most of our staff wishes they could keep for themselves (it’s true!).

For inspiration purposes, take a moment and watch the clips from the film below and get cracking!

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (premieres April 12)

Waste Land (premieres April 19)

Marwencol (premieres April 26)

Good luck!

Stalin consolidated his 1950′s post-war power by declaring all modernist art “decadent” and “bourgeois.” Those caught practicing it were sent to the gulag, or executed.

So archaeologist Igor Savitsky began his heroic quest to save 44,000 pieces of forbidden art from the masters of Russian modernism by squirreling them away in an Uzbek museum, far from the eyes of the KGB.

When the USSR disintegrated, it seemed the collection would endure. But under an increasingly autocratic Uzbek regime, the museum’s newfound notoriety may be double-edged. Can these masterpieces survive their second threat in a century?

To learn more about the museum and art works, watch The Desert of Forbidden Art Tuesday night on Independent Lens.

In celebration of Artists Month, the Independent Lens team has constructed an array of interactive features on Marginalized Art. Enjoy!

Watch the video after the jump.

Watch the full episode. See more Independent Lens.

Join Independent Lens to celebrate creativity and art throughout the month of April:

Special Section: Marginalized Art — explore the films and interactive features highlighting this month. They include interactive galleries, a quiz on outsider art, and a do-it-yourself toolkit to make your own vernacular backyard art, and much more.

The films:
• The Desert of Forbidden Art by filmmakers Tchavdar Georgiev and Amanda Pope  (Tuesday, April 5)

• Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child by filmmaker Tamra Davis (Tuesday, April 12)

• Waste Land by filmmaker Lucy Walker (Tuesday, April 19)

• Marwencol by filmmaker Jeff Malmberg(Tuesday, April 26)

In celebration of Artists month this April, Independent Lens will present four remarkable films about unconventional art and artists from around the world who have challenged our presumptions about beauty.

From censored art in Uzbekistan to Basquiat’s street art in Manhattan, from the world’s largest landfill to the mind of an artist with a brain injury, we’ll circle the globe by surfing art’s fringes.

Slated to air throughout the month of April, Independent lens presents:

• The Desert of Forbidden Art by filmmakers Tchavdar Georgiev and Amanda Pope  (Tuesday, April 5)

• Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child by filmmaker Tamra Davis (Tuesday, April 12)

• Waste Land by filmmaker Lucy Walker (Tuesday, April 19)

• Marwencol by filmmaker Jeff Malmberg(Tuesday, April 26)

Interactive Features
From street art to pre-punk beat literature; from Soviet censorship to the Third Reich’s condemnation of “degenerate art”; art from the underrepresented always seems to nudge culture to the edge of its comfort zone.

Check out our galleries, quizzes, and video goodies for a multimedia safari into marginalized art. Features include:

• The Eye of the Beholder Challenge – Why does one work of art sell for millions while another lands in the Museum of Bad Art?

• The Savitsky Collection: An interactive gallery of artwork from the Nukus Museum in Uzbekistan

• The Ultimate William S. Burroughs Quiz

• The Curiosity Cabinet of Vik Muniz

• Off the Map: Build your Own Backyard Paradise

Join Independent Lens next month to celebrate creativity and art through film.

It’s National Youth Art Month, and tonight Independent Lens is celebrating with a special encore presentation of Between the Folds –– a film that will make you look at paper folding in a whole other way. Do you think origami is just paper planes and cranes? Meet a determined group of theoretical scientists and fine artists who have abandoned careers and scoffed at graduate degrees to forge new lives as modern-day paper folders. Together they reinterpret the world in paper, creating a wild mix of sensibilities towards art, science, creativity and meaning.

Watch this special encore presentation of Between the Folds, tonight, March 9, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Think origami is just paper planes and cranes? Meet a determined group of theoretical scientists and fine artists who have abandoned careers and scoffed at graduate degrees to forge new lives as modern-day paper folders. Together they reinterpret the world in paper, creating a wild mix of sensibilities towards art, science, creativity and meaning.

BETWEEN THE FOLDS premieres tonight, December 8, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

BETWEEN THE FOLDS, premiering Tuesday, December 8 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings), chronicles the stories of fine artists and intrepid theoretical scientists who have abandoned careers and hard-earned graduate degrees to forge unconventional lives as modern-day paper-folders.

Take our new quiz and see if you can spot the patterns.

Every finished origami object begins as a line or series of lines on a single plane. With each fold, the final shape begins to emerge.

Once you’ve completed the challenge, download some fold patterns provided by some of the artists featured in BETWEEN THE FOLDS and see if you can master the craft.

Take the quiz and start matching >>

Rodger Despres, a local Michigan paper folder, displays a 45-foot long paper model train that took him 1,500 hours to construct.

Our first free event for BETWEEN THE FOLDS took place at the fabulous Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan where Community Cinema is in its 3rd smash season. Emily Maurin, Community Cinema Producing Partner with WGVU, told us, “We were extremely lucky to have two amazing paper folders with us––Richard Alexander, one of the film’s participants, and Rodger Despres, a local paper folder who has constructed a 45-foot long paper model train. They each offered a different perspective on paper folding. Richard spoke about his artwork as well as his experiences making his own paper. Rodger discussed how he has used paper to engineer working train cars and tracks. He was very excited since Richard was the first paper folder he had met! They talked about how paper folding is almost a secret society that is just now emerging as a mainstream art.”

In the video below, director Vanessa Gould gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like making the film, how she worked with artists and a discusses a variety of issues related to independent filmmaking.

“Crease Is the Word!” Jim Ridley writes in Nashville Scene about the upcoming free event for BETWEEN THE FOLDS at the Nashville Public Library THIS Sunday. “Vanessa Gould’s documentary has received rapturous notices for concentrating on the intersection of art and science that the ancient paper-folding art represents.”

Mary Delach Leonard writes in the St. Louis Beacon about our event at the Missouri History Museum. “Watching a former sculptor in France fold a flat sheet of paper into a three-dimensional human caricature … is worth far more than 1,000 words — which makes “Between the Folds” one of those unexpected documentaries you have to see to appreciate.” Read more>>

In St. Louis, approximately 340 people showed up for the viewing of the film at the Missouri History Museum. Sydney Meyer of Community Cinema Producing Partner KETC said, “I was amazed watching the diversity of people fill the auditorium and overflow onto the steps and the sides of the theater. People of all ages laughed and clapped at various parts of the film, signaling they understood what the artists were trying to communicate to them. After the film, the fun continued as more than 120 folks stayed to try their hand at paper-folding with artist Sugi Taylor. There was a lot of laughter and concentration as people attempted to make a paper box and bird.” As I walked around the tables, I heard comments like “I thought the simple figures would be easier. Now I admire the film artists even more!” or “I loved the film and I am amazed I can make this figure out of almost nothing… one simple square of paper.”

Director Vanessa Gould spent 3 days at 3 Community Cinema events in The Los Angeles area, and we were so lucky that she took time to write about it.

“…I entered the room [at LA’s Pitches Detention Center] with Deputy Bates and a few other staff members just as [the prisoners] had finished the film. …It was quite possibly the most enthusiastic reception the film has ever seen: a room brimming with almost-rowdy excitement and big smiles, a few thumbs up and hands on hearts. Even some paper hats and paper stars made out of the local county newspaper were floating around. There were far more questions and comments than we had time for. After about 20 questions, we all folded a simple model of a fox. I tried to remind them that if anyone made a mistake it was okay. They could try again. One of the good things about paperfolding is you can start over. More chances are possible.” And, with that apt metaphor the afternoon was clearly a success. Community Cinema hopes to bring more films to prisoners through our new partnership with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Read Vanessa’s complete post here.

Members of the Puget Area Paperfolding Enthusiasts Roundtable (PAPER) assisted audience members in folding a range of origami pieces in Seattle at the SIFF Cinema. PAPER founder Mark Morden spoke about paperfolding after the event while the audience members folded all around him.

We also partnered with Craftzine and Makezine Blogs who posted articles about our free screenings of the film. In addition to being the perfect media partners for a film about paperfolding, the blogs are jam-packed with how-to’s and DIY instructions to help you get started folding paper or to take your folding to the next level.

If you missed one of our 40+ free preview screenings, don’t miss BETWEEN THE FOLDS when it airs nationally on Independent Lens on PBS Tuesday, December 8 (check local listings). Now, get out there and fold some paper, America!

Wow! That was the first word that came to my mind as people kept flowing into the St. Louis History Museum for the screening of BETWEEN THE FOLDS last evening. This was Community Cinema at its finest. Approximately 340 people showed up for the viewing of the film and I was amazed watching the diversity of people fill the auditorium and overflow onto the steps and the sides of the theater. People of all ages laughed and clapped at various parts of the film, signaling they understood what the artists were trying to communicate to them.

After the film, the fun continued as more than 120 folks stayed to try their hand at paper-folding with artist Sugi Taylor. There was a lot of laughter and concentration as people attempted to make a paper box and bird.

As I walked around the tables, I heard comments like “I thought the simple figures would be easier. Now I admire the film artists even more!” or “I loved the film and I am amazed I can make this figure out of almost nothing… one simple square of paper.”

A middle school girl who came with her math teacher told me, “I am a beginner paper-folder and the film inspired me to want to continue learning and try to become like the people in the film.” I loved the little girl’s comment and it made me appreciate Community Cinema even more because inspiration and change is what the program is all about.

As I spoke with a math teacher from Valley Park Middle School, I realized how she had used paper-folding to encourage students who struggled with math. They were excited about math because they could see the practical, hands-on application. They wanted to learn vocabulary like “vertex” and “hyperbolic parabaloid” so they could make those shapes. As I listened to the teacher, I remembered my own struggles with geometry in high school. Where was paper-folding when I was young? It would have made math so much more fun and exciting!

- Sydney Meyer
KETC Project Manager and Community Cinema Producing Partner

Find Community Cinema screenings near you >>

Learn more about Community Cinema >>

BETWEEN THE FOLDS premieres on December 8 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

In the video below, director Vanessa Gould gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like making the film, how she worked with artists and a discusses a variety of issues related to independent filmmaking.

Find Community Cinema screenings near you >>

Learn more about Community Cinema >>

BETWEEN THE FOLDS premieres on December 8 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).