The NFTA in collaboration with the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, is excited to announce another year of celebrating moving art through Black History! The NFTA is calling on local artists from across Western New York to submit original artwork for its Black History Month art contest.

The winning design will be showcased on NFTA-Metro buses throughout February 2025 and beyond. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Black Culture”. Artists are encouraged to create eye-catching and colorful work that honors the trends and concepts Black culture has inspired throughout history.  

Submitted artwork can be new or existing. Upon selection, the Grand Prize winner will be paid a flat fee of $1,500 for their artistic contribution. The due date for the artwork is Friday, December 13, 2024.

Project Specifications 

• The ability to create and submit high-quality digital files is required. 
• Artwork is to be designed for full-color digital images for printing on vinyl to be applied on an NFTA-Metro bus.
• The selected artist can create the imagery in any medium, but digital artwork must be submitted using these applications and file types:
• Adobe CC or Illustrator (ai|eps|pdf) CMYK
• InDesign (indd|pdf) CMYK Photoshop (psd|eps|) CMYK
• If the image includes fonts, they must be outlined within the artwork.
• All layout files must be packaged and bundled to include all linked images and fonts.

The final selection will be made by the NFTA’s African American Heritage Committee. Selected artists will be required to work with the NFTA’s graphic team to provide revisions for reproduction. Artists’ work may be used on NFTA’s social media platforms. All copyrights are reserved for NFTA. 

Submission Requirements

Artists are required to submit the following for consideration (Maximum of 2 designs):

1. Name
2. Address
3. Phone
4. Email
5. Title of image
6. Description of proposed artwork 
7. Bio, social media link, website
8. Use attached file to design in
9. Save the file as: firstname_lastname_NFTA_BHM_Proposal.jpg(jpeg)
10. Send to ally@discoverniagara.org

Timeline

The deadline for submissions is December 13, 2024, at midnight. The winner will be notified of their submission status by December 20, 2024. *NFTA reserves the right to refuse any inappropriate content.

Contact

For general inquiries or questions regarding this Call for Art, please contact:

• Ally Spongr DeGon:   ally@discoverniagara.org with the email subject as NFTA BHM
• Phone: 716- 300-8477