The Indian American Heritage Project of Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center is looking for artists to create works that use the visual of the H1-B visa as a motif or inspiration and comment upon the experience of temporary and tenuous immigration status for Indian immigrants in the United States.  Themes such as migration, transnational identity, diaspora, economy, outsourcing and the role and reach of technology can also be explored.

Final works should be no larger than 6’ by 6’ and must mount on a gallery wall.  All media are welcome, including graphic design, painting, drawing, printing, collage, photography and mixed media.

Interested artists should submit a concept, including a detailed written description and sketches/images by midnight EST on Sunday, March 31, 2013 to Curator Masum Momaya at MomayaM@si.edu with the subject line “H1-B”.

Upon review of concept submissions by Smithsonian curatorial staff, a small number of artists will be asked to create the final work and submit digital representations of it by 5pm EST on Friday, May 31, 2013.

Digital representations will be displayed by Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center in an online gallery, and the winning work will be featured in an upcoming exhibition, Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation at the National Museum of Natural History from December 2013 through January 2015.

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