For those artists who create monumental pieces of sculpture, finding a public home for the work is relatively straightforward: there are sculpture and art parks to approach, corporate office parks and university grounds, not to mention city and neighborhood spaces, in need of beautification. There are actually plenty of opportunities for artists working in other media to contribute their work to the civic sphere as well. Finding those outlets just requires a bit of savvy and timely local arts news-watching.

For example, if you’re a writer, performer or visual artist with civic aspirations, now is a good time to find those opportunities: many park programs source their art exhibitors, vendors and performers for neighborhood arts fairs and outdoor festivals from midwinter to early spring. It’s also a time of year when annual projects that come to fruition each fall and winter are beginning to gather material.

The “Saint Paul Almanac,” for one, is currently taking submissions of artwork for next year’s installment of the popular cultural guidebook to the city.  The call for work is open to visual artists living and working in St. Paul. While modest compensation will be awarded to artists whose work is selected for inclusion in the issue ($10 for accepted image plus a copy of this year’s almanac), the real prize is inclusion in the commemorative exhibition at AZ Gallery and Black Dog Coffee & Wine Bar in Lowertown this September and notation of participating artists’ bios and web links in both the print and online iterations of guidebook. The deadline for submissions of visual art by St. Paul artists interested in having their work considered for the 2013 “Saint Paul Almanac” is April 4. Find the detailed call for art here: http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=310395

Here’s another opportunity: the 5^th Annual Saint Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest is well underway. The Department of Public Works and Public Art St. Paul (a Knight Arts grantee) invite residents of the city with literary inclinations to submit short, original poems — “elegant rhymes, playful limericks, bar napkin free verse, classroom haikus.” From these submissions, five winning pieces will be selected to become permanent fixtures along St. Paul streets as part of the project “Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk,” conceived by the city’s artist in residence Marcus Young. (See examples of some of these sidewalk poems on the City of St. Paul website.) The deadline for submissions of poems for the 5^th Annual Saint Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest is April 13. Find the detailed call for poems and additional information about the project here: http://www.publicartstpaul.com/sidewalks/. Looking for more? For many, many more opportunities for artists working in every discipline, the community bulletin board at mnartists.org is a must-bookmark resource.