Mail Your Art!

The following Mail Art Show is now closed. However, the information presented may be helpful if you would like to organize your own show.

March is National Youth Art Month in the United States. To celebrate the occasion, Kidscommons, a children's museum in Columbus, Indiana and ARTColumbus, a group of visual artists, are sponsoring a children's mail art show. Although Youth Art Month is an American observance, we invite kids from all over the world to participate. By hosting the exhibit, we hope to provide children the opportunity to express themselves through the visual arts, poetry, and music.

Mail art was popularized in the '60s by Ray Johnson of the New York Correspondence School, and contemporary artists, such as Yoko Ono and Christo, have used the art form to express themselves. To participate in a mail art show, the artist simply illustrates the announced theme, and he or she creates something which is possible to mail. In most exhibits, there are no juries, fees, or returns, and no limitations are placed on techniques, materials, or size. However, since kidscommons is a small museum, we must specify the size and ground.

Making mail art is a good way to learn about geography and people in other countries, and it teaches kids about our connection to the world at large. Whether you speak English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, or something else, participating in this activity will show how art can cross the language barrier. Art is a universal language! If you recycle materials to make the mail art, you'll be helping to save landfill space, energy, and natural resources.

You Will Need:

The art must be done on a 4"x6" piece of card stock, and all media are acceptable, including collage, markers, crayons, pen and ink, colored pencils, rubber stamps, tempera, and watercolor.

How to:

Children's Mail Art Show Call for Entry

Eligibility:

Children, ages 3 through 12

Theme:

Create a current self-portrait or illustrate how you think you will look and dress as an adult in the next millennium. Entries may be in the form of poetry or musical compositions, too.

Size and background:

Maximum size is a 4"x6" post card. The art does not have to be created on an "official" post card, just something of similar weight. A 4"x6" card is the largest post card that can be mailed in the United States without having to add extra postage. Try to recycle a light weight piece of card stock for your entry.

Show Rules:

No fees, no jury, no returns. All work will be exhibited or performed.

Exhibit:

Work will be exhibited on the Art Wall at kidscommons, and poetry will be read and musical compositions performed at a reception held in honor of the artists.

Important Dates:

This particular show is now closed. A public reception was held on April 1st, 1999 to recognize Youth Art Month and to honor the artists who entered by that date.

Tips and Tricks:

• Cut old file folders into 4"x 6" pieces to make several post cards.
• Cards do not have to be mailed separately. It's acceptable for a teacher, scout leader, or other care giver to mail many entries together.
• Perhaps you'd like to host a mail art show of your own. It's easy! Just follow our guidelines, and announce your show to the world on the Internet.
• Learn all about postage stamps and stamp collecting at the United States Postal Service Web site.

Click here to see the first entries displayed on the Art Wall at kidscommons.

© 1999 Marilyn J. Brackney (updated 2018)

Volume 14 No. 2