WAVE Call for Female Artists – Cartoonist

New deadline: 15th November

Announcement of the winners: 26th November

Are you a graphic artist or a cartoonist who is passionate about creating socially engaging cartoons, while trying to initiate a positive change in the society? We would like to invite you to put your skills to use for women’s rights!

The WAVE Network(1) is looking for female cartoonists to imagine and present their vision and interpretation of an inspirational role model, the character of a Shero – a female hero who is a positive agent of change in society. Imagine a day in the life of the Shero whose work is all about preventing and stopping violence against women and girls. Imagine where such violence usually takes place. Is it in families’ homes? In relationships? On the street? What would Shero do if she witnessed it? Experienced it? What is needed to tackle it? Please give us your vision of an inspirational cartoon figure capable of taking on this challenge and supporting women and girls who need assistance.

The call is open to female artists (age 18+), from 17 September until 14 October 2018. The cartoons, in electronic form, need to be sent to the local campaigning organisation whose jury will select up to three artists per a campaigning country for publication. Eligible artists need to have nationality or permanent residence in one of the campaigning countries.(2)

The WAVE Network will publish the winners in a booklet in original language, together with an explanatory text and a short profile of the artist in English.

Your application should consist of:

– one page of artwork in the form of cartoon, where you introduce an original, inspirational female character, a Shero (you may give her another name), a role model, an agent of positive change in a real-life situation. The story of the cartoon needs to be related to the issue of domestic – psychological and / or sexual violence as described(3) in the Istanbul Convention. Preferred language is your native language, but you may also use English;

– a short biography of you; please include your birth date(4) – you must be 18 years or more, contact email, and a preferred nickname, in case you would like us to use it instead of your real name;

– scan of a signed short statement, allowing the WAVE Network to use your artwork for publication and for promotion of the Step Up! Campaign in 2018-21. Your rights as an artist are fully respected, and your intellectual property fully protected.

The chosen authors will:

– have their artwork published in a unique European publication which will be distributed within 46 WAVE member countries, as well as published in pdf form on the internet;

– receive a bag of campaigning goodies, sent to their address;

– receive 3 copies of the printed publication.

Also, the WAVE Network may invite one or more artists for further collaboration in the future.

Please refer to your national campaigner for further details about the call.

The national winners will be announced on 18 October 2018.

The Step Up! Campaign is a Europe-wide project of the WAVE Network, aiming at increasing efforts to stop violence against women, raising awareness of the issue, and protecting survivors of violence against women and girls.

 

(1) WAVE Network is the only European network of women’s organisations, focusing solely on the elimination of violence against women and children. Established in 1994, it now consists of more than 140 NGOs from 46 countries.

(2) The countries participating in the campaign in 2018 are: Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine and Wales.

(3) Please refer to the Articles 3, 33, 35 and 36 of the Istanbul Convention: http://bit.ly/IstaCon.

(4) We only need your birth date to verify your age. Date of birth won’t be published.