Tom Grey and Louisa Crispin are excited to announce the open call for “Vespid”, an upcoming exhibition which we will co-curate at the Kaleidoscope Gallery in August.
Key Dates:
You can now submit your pieces to the open call using this form:
Key Dates:
- Open call submission deadline: Sunday 31st May 2026 at 1700 BST
- Selected artists notified: Friday 3rd July 2026
- Delivery of selected pieces to the Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery: 12pm to 5pm on Monday 3rd August 2026
- Exhibition opens: Wednesday 5th August 2026
- Exhibition closes: Friday 28th August 2026
- Deinstall and collection of pieces: 10am to 3pm on Saturday 29th August 2026
You can now submit your pieces to the open call using this form:
[Please note the form will require you to sign into Google so as to enable the image upload functionality]
The open call is to SVAF members, plus a small number of ‘invited artists’ (we are open to suggestions of non-SVAF artists to invite). The open call will close on the 31st of May.
The theme of “Vespid” is wasps, both literally and allegorical. We are excited to present a diverse and challenging set of work, so we encourage you to interpret the topic widely, both the literal insects and nests, but also what wasps represent.
We are excited by possible cross-overs with other disciplines, so we are hoping to involve the museum, and local wildlife groups. If anyone has any contacts or suggestions, we’d really appreciate an introduction.
If you have any initial questions, please feel free to email Tom at [email protected]
Some ideas to help inspire you:
The open call is to SVAF members, plus a small number of ‘invited artists’ (we are open to suggestions of non-SVAF artists to invite). The open call will close on the 31st of May.
The theme of “Vespid” is wasps, both literally and allegorical. We are excited to present a diverse and challenging set of work, so we encourage you to interpret the topic widely, both the literal insects and nests, but also what wasps represent.
We are excited by possible cross-overs with other disciplines, so we are hoping to involve the museum, and local wildlife groups. If anyone has any contacts or suggestions, we’d really appreciate an introduction.
If you have any initial questions, please feel free to email Tom at [email protected]
Some ideas to help inspire you:
- Wasps represent the rejected, the outcast
- Wasps are a childhood fear
- Wasps are helpful pest controllers and pollinators
- Wasps vs bees - so alike but so different
- Wasps are so diverse, but often we think only of the common, the black-and-yellow picnic nuisance!
- Many types of wasp are social, living in nests ruled over by a queen, bringing food back to feed the growing larvae
- The ‘wasp waist’ was seen as the height of female fashion in many countries in the 19th and 20th centuries
- Wasps nests are constructed from ‘paper’ made by chewing up wood fibers
- The magna carta was signed with ink made from oak galls, which are caused by wasps
- In mythology, wasps sometimes represent the plucky fighter, ready to stand up for themselves
- Wasps have been around for millions of years before humans, and are sometimes found fossilised or preserved in amber
