Submit to the Art of Diversity Showcase by July 8

The Art of Diversity Showcase, part of the University of Pittsburgh’s 2022 Diversity Forum, has extended its submission deadline to July 8.

Members of the public, the Pittsburgh community and Pitt students, faculty, and staff—across all five campuses—are invited to submit creative work that could be featured in this year’s showcase. This includes performance art, visual art and written works that address intersectionality, embrace and celebrate minoritized cultures and perspectives and other topics related diversity, equity and inclusion.

First place submissions in the following categories will each earn $500:

• Writing for the page
• Visual art (2D, 3D, photography) 
• Performance (video, music, slam) 
• People’s Choice (voting, open to public) 
• Interdisciplinary Award (works that cross genres) 

A minimum of three honorable mention awards (one per category for writing, visual art, and performance) will be awarded $250 each. Winners will be announced during the Diversity Forum which takes place July 25-28.

More information about submission guidelines can be found on the online submission form.

Previous winners include Paula Davis, associate vice chancellor for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Pitt’s Schools of the Health Sciences, for her poem, “Untitled”:

What calls me to the ocean?
Is it the peace borne of rhythmic waves,
Or the gems that appear as the sun meets the water?
Perhaps it's the way I am made buoyant,
able to feel my body held by the surface of greatness.
For under the ocean lie two million ancestors
Who never completed the passage.
They call to me.

And pictured above, Theresa Polley-Shellcroft’s, “Sold,” which won an honorable mention in the visual art category in 2021.