Taking advantage of the opportunitities to share our art
--and our children's art--
is something worth true consideration.

I'd like to share with you one opportunity that happened for Steemian artists last year,
and how I am preparing for potential opportunities if they arise again.

Last year at Steemfest2,
Steemit artists from all over the globe participated in an art exhibit
in the ancient city of Lisboa, Portugal
for all the Steemfest2 participants and the general public as well.

It was the first Steemfest year that art had its own venue, so with the astounding facilitation of @roelandp, the @gardenofeden crew (consisting of @quinneaker, @saramiller and myself), @opheliafu, and additional help from @lifemovedbysteem, and @prc, we transformed an empty space in one of the LXFactory buildings into a Steemit Art Gallery appropriately called:

~~~~ ArtAtSteemfest ~~~~

Not only were there nearly 140 Steemit Artist images submitted and curated in the space, @kimberleighfl and I put together a video for projection of the images, poetry and sound contributed to the Collaborative Art Journey throughout the year.

We also had a lot of Steembird jammin'
and some potent impromptu collaborative music and sound,

@opheliafu and @paolobeneforti hosted workshops and discussions, @saramiller shared some yoga, the @gardenofeden provided Epic Handmade SteemGear, and for the second year, a hot and steemy Steemit pancake breakfast was provided by @roelandp's brother.

At the end of the final dinner of Steemfest2, the printed images were given away, either back to the original artist, or to another Steemian who fell in love with the works.

There was so much appreciation for the art that was shared, for the value of work curated for this event, and for the camaraderie that was built together in support of the arts.

As you can see---there was a LOT of effort placed on this one single ArtAtSteemfest venue (not to mention all of @roelandp and his team's efforts for the rest of this once-in-a-lifetime event). It was a really big deal, especially for all the Steemians participating at SteemFest, and for the artists who provided their creations to be shared.

I have high hopes that we get to curate another ArtAtSteemfest space wherever and whenever Steemfest3 comes around. If the opportunity arises, our dream would be to make it an even juicier and more active creative hangout space, even more prolifically curated with all of our Steemit art blasted all over the walls, art projected on large screens, more music, yoga, workshops, discussions, and more!!!

All of that being said, it took quite the effort to gather these works of art from the different hosts from the Steemit art initiatives. We were unsure of exactly how to put it together, but have a little better feel for what worked and what could have made it a lot easier.

One of the major things we did at the @gardenofeden to prepare (for my own initiative - the Collaborative Art Journey), was to compile all of the art, poetry and music contributions toward the 27 different collaborations (which was over 481 contributions), formatting them into one video with titles and credit for each piece, and getting permission from each artist to present their works. It was an incredibly time consuming effort, which took over 70 hours at crunch time just to put it together, in addition to encouraging other hosts from other art initiatives to collect their works and permission as well.

So....this year, though we have not been given any indication that there will be an exhibit opportunity - at Steemfest3 or otherwise - we still feel that compiling this information in a useable format as the art is submitted would be a VERY beneficial and pre-emptive idea. Gathering this information immediately from the artists who submit their work to one of my initiatives will save me and my brilliant organizing/creation team (@kimberleighfl!!!) dozens of hours each.

This is how it will work:

When submitting art for either the
COLLABORATIVE ART JOURNEY and/or ARTISTS IN BLOOM,
each artist will be asked to fill out a special submission form.
The link to the "form" will be included in my INVITATION post.
By completing this form, the artist will:

- be giving us permission to use their artwork
- automatically be submitting their art for possible inclusion in an exhibit
- be providing all the information necessary to identify their work and themselves as the artist

NOTE 1:
- Only those artists submitting this form will have their work eligible for exhibit.
(Should you ever have an issue filling out this form, please feel free to contact me about it.)

NOTE 2:
- Filling out this "form" is not a requirement for participating in either the Collaborative Art Journey or Artists in Bloom. Simply by participating in either of the initiatives you are already giving permission for us to use your art in whatever way we see fit, but the "form" will be considered your official entry into special exhibits should they arise. This will also keep you from missing a request for submissions at a later date.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~

Here are the links for those of you who are not yet aware
of my two new initiatives or are ready to come out and play:

INVITATION TO THE COLLABORATIVE ART JOURNEY -
"DREAM WEAVERS" Collaboration No. 33
Deadline Sunday, February 25, 2018 at midnight CST

~*~*~

ARTISTS IN BLOOM IS THE NEW INITIATIVE
FOR SHARING AND PROMOTING CHILDREN'S ART HERE ON STEEMIT!!
Deadline for this week's Gallery No. 2 is Sunday, February 18, 2018 at Midnight CST.

Please give me any feedback or ask any questions in the comment sections below.
If you are also a host of an art initiative here on Steemit
and are interested in automizing the submissions to your art contest/challenge,
(which will also make it much easier for whoever labels the art at the exhibit),
feel free to let me know...maybe we can help you.