So the world still hasn’t named you its next Picasso, hasn’t showered you with Pulitzer’s, NEA Grants, or MacArthur Genius Awards. Being a starved and unrecognized talent is the lot of so many artists. But one can’t give up. Rather, get out there and show your work to the world. Right now, New Orleans has a number of upcoming projects that could be your big break. Here’s a few of them:

No Dead Artists

Now in its 12th year, the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, with support from The Gambit Weekly, is currently seeking submissions for their juried exhibition, No Dead Artists. Created in 1995 as a way to give a voice to underexposed Louisiana artists, No Dead Artists is open to any living artist working in Louisiana. Those selected will receive a showing at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, a feature article in Gambit Weekly, reviewed by renowned art critic D. Eric Bookhardt, and exposure to countless collectors and galleries. This year’s jurors are artist Tony Fitzpatrick, Billie Milam Weisman, Director of the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation in Los Angeles, and Michael Wilkinson, a collector of Contemporary Art. The No Dead Artists exhibition will open on September 6, 2008. Think you’ve got what it takes? The deadline for submissions is July 28, so hurry up and visit www.jonathanferraragallery.com to download an application and get up-to-date on the guidelines.

The First Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Fiction Writing Contest

Perhaps it’s the pen, not the paintbrush that you wield. There are plenty of opportunities for you there as well. This year, the Tennessee Williams/ New Orleans Literary Festival will offer its first fiction writing competition. Judged by noted author Richard Ford, the prizes are hefty and include a grand prize of $1,500 cash prize, a VIP Festival Pass (a $500 value) for the 2009 Festival in March, Airfare and accommodations to attend the Festival, publication in the New Orleans Review, and a public reading at the Festival. Second prize receives $200, a public reading and a Festival pass, and the third prize winner will walk away with $100, a public reading and a Festival pass. The competition is open to works of fiction less than 7,000 words. Hopefuls can submit online or mail their entries to the Festival offices. Deadline for entry is October 28, 2008. There is a $20 entry fee per story. For more information visit www.tennesseewilliams.net.

A Studio In The Woods

Perhaps all you need to finish the next great American novel or to breakthrough in your art is a little time away from the city. A Studio in the Woods, a beautiful, tranquil retreat just outside the hubbub of New Orleans offers artist residencies for directed projects. Residencies typically last between two and four weeks. Artists are given lodging and food, along with studio space and the quiet of 7.66 forested acres on the Mississippi River. The space serves as an artistic community and is dedicated to preserving the endangered bottomland hardwood forest. Founders Joe and Lucianne Carmichael worked in the space that is the Studio for years, and eventually they opened their home in an effort to provide a peaceful retreat where visual, literary and performing artists can work uninterrupted. Programming includes community workshops in the arts and environmental preservation, and an outdoor classroom where school children and university students can experience and study the natural world. The only live-in artists’ retreat in the Deep South, A Studio in the Woods fosters both environmental preservation and the creative work of all artists. For more information and eligibility requirements for artist’s residencies visit www.astudiointhewoods.org

However you do it, wherever you choose to make your opportunities, just go. Celebrate yourself. Loaf and invite your soul. Be untamed, untranslatable. Sound your barbaric YAWP over the rooftops of the world*.

*Adapted and inspired by Song of Myself by Walt Whitman.

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