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21Minus | Call for Proposals

January 31, 2025 - February 15, 2025

Are you a Chicagoland resident under 21?
Do you have something to say?
Are you excited to engage hundreds of museum visitors, other youth, and artists?

Submit your project for 21Minus!

On Saturday, June 14, 2025, youth will take over the MCA with installations, workshops, performances, videos, music, and print works, all made by artists under 21 and community partners who support Chicagoland youth.

The theme of 21Minus 2025 is “. (Period) of Time.”

This year’s theme is Time, with the showcase titled “. of Time,” (Period of Time). We’re seeking completed art projects for 21Minus that explores the nuances, ambiguities, and tensions of time as a dimension of the universe.

Due to the unstable relationship that humans have with time—because of our socialized constriction and its elusive nature—our understanding of reality through time is fraught. Whether investigating chronologies, realities, spiritualities, the natural, or the supernatural, time expands past the bounds of perception. We invite artists to challenge standard conventions of time and offer their own interpretations.

Topics for Exploration

We welcome artwork that engages with:

  • Time Travel & Alternative Realities
  • Memory, Nostalgia & Archiving
  • Cultural & Non-Western Conceptions of Time
  • Nature’s Relationship to Time (Seasons, Life Cycles, Growth)
  • Capitalism, Labor & the Ownership of Time
  • Museums, Historicism & the Power of Timekeeping

21Minus is a one-day showcase curated and produced by TCA with support from Lead Artists Olive Stefanski and Miguel Limon, and Ahmad Bracey, Manager of Youth and Schools. During 21 Minus museum admission is free for people ages 21 and under and their families.

Check out the FAQs for more information about 21Minus and making a great proposal. If you have additional questions about the process or have questions about 21Minus in general, contact us at [email protected].

Funding

Generous support for the Teen Creative Agency is provided by the Dr. Scholl Foundation and Peoples Gas Community Fund. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.

Lead support for Learning programs at the MCA is provided by Jana and Bernardo Hees.

Major support is provided by Carol Prins and John Hart/The Jessica Fund.

Additional generous support is provided by the Friends of Edwin A. Bergman Fund, the Hulda B. & Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation, Diane Kahan, The Marshall Frankel Foundation, and The William Randolph Hearst Foundations.

Peoples Gas Community Fund logo