The Things We Feel: Submissions Open for Our New Virtual Exhibition

Some of the most important parts of being an artist begin with something that cannot always be explained. A memory that stays with you. A feeling you cannot quite name. A moment that changed something. A person, place, relationship, or experience that continues to find its way into your creative practice.

Our feelings often become part of the work long before we consciously realize it. Sometimes they appear through colour or texture. Sometimes through a particular subject, gesture, photograph, or material. And sometimes, they are simply present in the atmosphere of a piece.

The Women in Arts Network is inviting artists to explore exactly this relationship between emotion and artistic expression with its new international virtual exhibition, The Things We Feel.

About The Theme

The Things We Feel is an international open call inviting women and non-binary artists to explore the emotions, experiences, memories, sensations, and inner worlds that shape the way we see ourselves and the world around us.

The theme is intentionally broad. Your work does not have to literally depict an emotion or immediately tell the viewer what feeling it represents. It can be inspired by an experience, connected to a memory, explore an inner state, capture an atmosphere, or simply leave the viewer with a particular feeling of their own. That openness makes this an opportunity that can speak to very different artistic practices.

A painting might explore nostalgia through colour. A photograph might hold onto a fleeting moment of connection. A textile piece might carry memories of home. An abstract work might communicate something that words cannot. A portrait might be about an unspoken relationship, while a landscape might be less about the place itself and more about what that place makes you feel.

The exhibition welcomes artists to consider questions such as: What experiences have shaped your work? What emotions stay with you? What do you carry into your creative practice? And what do you hope someone else feels when they encounter your art?

There is no single way to answer these questions.

What Can You Submit?

One of the strengths of this open call is the range of mediums it welcomes. Artists can submit work across painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, illustration, digital art, collage, textiles, mixed media, video, installation, and other contemporary visual practices.

Your interpretation can also take many forms. The work may be figurative, abstract, conceptual, minimalist, expressive, symbolic, experimental, or somewhere in between.

What matters most is the connection between your work and the theme.

You do not need to create something new specifically for the open call either. If you already have a piece that explores an emotion, memory, experience, atmosphere, or personal idea that fits The Things We Feel, it may be worth considering for submission.

Why This Open Call Is Worth Considering

For artists, an exhibition opportunity is about more than simply having a piece displayed online. A thoughtfully selected exhibition can become part of your professional record, give you another opportunity to present your practice to new audiences, and help you build an exhibition history over time.

Selected artists for The Things We Feel will be featured in an international virtual exhibition hosted by the Women in Arts Network. Because the exhibition is presented online, the work can be accessed by audiences around the world, including collectors, curators, fellow artists, art enthusiasts, and people discovering the artists for the first time.

Selected artists will also receive a digital certificate of participation and can add the exhibition to their CV, website, portfolio, and exhibition history.

The Women in Arts Network has presented more than 15 international exhibitions over the past two years, bringing together more than 800 artists from around the world. For emerging artists especially, opportunities like these can help build confidence and create a stronger professional record as their practice develops.

At the same time, established artists can use the exhibition as another way to introduce their work to an international audience and participate in a wider artistic conversation.

An Optional Artist Interview Feature

Artists who want to share more than their work can also choose to add the Artist Interview Feature to their application.

If selected, the artist will receive a dedicated feature published on the Women in Arts Network website. The interview gives artists space to talk about their creative journey, influences, inspirations, process, and the story behind their work.

This can be particularly valuable because an artwork often only tells part of an artist’s story. An interview gives audiences the opportunity to understand the person and practice behind the piece. The feature is also promoted across the Women in Arts Network’s digital platforms, giving selected artists another opportunity to introduce their work to a wider audience. The interview is completely optional, so artists can choose the exhibition-only option if they prefer.

Who Can Apply?

The Things We Feel is open internationally to women and non-binary artists aged 18 and above, regardless of where they are based.

You do not need to be an established professional artist to apply. The opportunity welcomes artists at every stage of their creative journey, including emerging artists, recent graduates, and artists who have never exhibited their work before.

There is also no restriction to one particular artistic style or medium. The open call is designed to bring together different perspectives and approaches to the same broad idea: how feeling becomes part of art.

How to Apply

The application process is straightforward.

• Artists will need to complete the online submission form with their contact and artist information, provide details about their work, and upload up to three artworks for consideration.
• Artwork images must be in JPG or PNG format and under 5 MB each. For each submission, artists are asked to provide the title, medium, size, and year of the work.
• The jury will review submissions based on factors including artistic quality, originality, technical execution, relevance to the theme, and overall presentation.

It is important to remember that this is a juried exhibition, so submitting does not guarantee selection. Artists should also make sure that all submitted work is their original work and that they have the necessary rights to submit it.

Submission Fee and Deadline

The application fee for the virtual exhibition is $15 USD, which allows artists to submit up to three artworks for consideration. Artists who want to add the optional Artist Interview Feature can do so for an additional $19 USD, bringing the combined cost to $34 USD.

The application fee is non-refundable, and payment does not guarantee selection for either the exhibition or the interview feature.

The submission deadline is October 5, 2026.

The selection results are expected to be communicated within three weeks after the deadline, with the virtual exhibition launching approximately one month after the selected artists are announced. Dates may be adjusted if necessary, with updates communicated to applicants.

Before You Submit

With an open-ended theme like this, the biggest question is often not “Is my work emotional enough?” but rather “Does this work have a genuine connection to the theme?”

Do not feel pressured to make the connection obvious. Think about the work you already have and the experiences behind it. Is there a memory attached to it? Was it made during a particular period of your life? Does it explore belonging, grief, joy, solitude, love, uncertainty, hope, longing, or transformation? Or does it simply create a feeling that you want the viewer to experience?

These connections can be subtle. It is also worth taking a little time to choose your strongest images. Since the jury will be reviewing digital submissions, clear, well-presented artwork images can make an important difference in how your work is initially experienced. Most importantly, choose work that feels true to your practice rather than trying to guess what the jury wants to see.

Turn What You Feel Into What We Can See

Art has always had a unique ability to hold things that language cannot quite contain. A feeling can be difficult to explain and yet immediately recognizable when we encounter it in an image, object, colour, or gesture.

That is what makes The Things We Feel an interesting theme for artists. It leaves room for the personal without requiring every work to tell the same story.

Whether your work comes from a memory, an emotion, an experience, a relationship, a place, or simply a feeling that has stayed with you, this open call offers an opportunity to bring that invisible part of your creative practice into a wider conversation.

For artists looking for an international exhibition opportunity, The Things We Feel is now open for submissions through the Women in Arts Network.

The deadline is October 5, 2026. If you have a work that has always carried a little more feeling than you could put into words, this might be the place to share it.