Kinsey Erotic Art Show Accepting Submissions

The Kinsey Institute is now accepting submissions for its second annual juried erotic art show. The competition is open to all artists 18 years of age and older. Entries must be original works in the following categories: painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, ceramics, fibers, or mixed media. If you're interested you can get complete details on the Kinsey site, or download the brochure here. More about the show:

The juror for this year's exhibit is Karen Baldner, an artist and faculty member at the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, Indiana. Karen has shown her work extensively throughout the United States and Europe, and is a member of Soho20 Chelsea Gallery in New York City.

The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, originally named the Institute for Sex Research, was founded by Alfred Kinsey at Indiana University in 1947. Since its inception the Institute has collected objects that deal with sex, sexuality, gender and reproduction. This collection has grown into one of the world's largest and most renowned sources of historical and contemporary erotic art, artifacts and photography. The more than 80,000 items span more than 2000 years of history, and range from ancient Egyptian artifacts to contemporary erotic photography.

The Kinsey Institute Gallery offers exhibits that explore various themes in erotic art using materials from within and outside the Institute's collection. A list of previous exhibits may be found at http://kinseyinstitute.org/services/gallery.html

The Kinsey Institute's Annual Erotic Juried Art Show began in 2006 and provides established and upcoming artists with an opportunity to exhibit artworks that may be too explicit or challenging for many venues. The show also provides an opportunity for a wide range of visitors to view these works in the Kinsey Institute Gallery.

For more information about the Juried Erotic Art Show or The Kinsey Institute please see the attached brochure, visit our website or contact the Kinsey Institute at kiart@indiana.edu or 812-855-7686.

Several years ago I had the chance to visit the Institute to do interviews with the director, head librarian, and chief curator for a Canadian television documentary about Kinsey. As a sex research geek walking through the library and seeing just a portion of the gallery collections was a dream come true. If there was a version of 100 Places to Visit Before You Die for sex, the Institute would have to be in the top 5.

The librarian showed us a letter from their collection which Sigmund Freud had written to an American woman about her son. She had originally written to Freud with concerns that her son was gay, and Freud wrote this lovely response encouraging her to love her son no matter what, and to know that there was nothing wrong with being gay. The letter is interesting because it conflicts many of the things Freud wrote publicly about homosexuality, but it's also amazing to see the kindness with which he responded (and how bad his handwriting was).

Kinsey Institute - Juried Erotic Art Show 2007 Call for Artists