Calculating creative ROI
Wednesday, July 22 — The common thread among this week’s Rough Draft Atlanta Sketchbook stories is the creative risks that come before the creative rewards – the courage required to put work forward for consideration and the potential satisfaction waiting on the other side.
To wit …
🎞️ This spring, roughly 50 Atlanta filmmakers and animators raised their hands to spend four days learning AR tools and hone their generative media and storytelling craft. Eight ideas that came out of that session now make up the Altera Art: ATL AR mural tour, built in partnership with the City of Atlanta, Invest Atlanta, Atlanta Tech Hub and Avant South. That’s risk paying off in new skills, new work, and a new audience.
🗓️ Right now, nine open calls across Metro Atlanta – and just beyond it – are asking other artists to take a risk of their own. They span juried exhibitions, festival booths and a residency in the North Georgia mountains, with deadlines running from early August through mid-September. That’s risk still waiting to be taken.
One story highlights what happens when creative courage is displayed. The other is an invitation to display your own.
Which creative calculations have paid off for you?
—Sherri Daye Scott
Art augmented
📱 Point your phone at eight Atlanta murals and watch them shift: a demolished library rises again in Sweet Auburn, an interactive scavenger hunt unlocks in Little Five Points. No app, no ticket – just AR layered onto spaces that already had stories.
➡️ Step inside the Altera Art: ATL tour.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime
SPONSORED BY THE HIGH MUSEUM
🎨 You’ve seen Amy Sherald’s iconic portrait of Michelle Obama. Now, her largest exhibition to date comes to Atlanta, featuring rarely seen paintings and monumental portraits spanning nearly two decades.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime is now open, bringing one of the leading artists of her generation back to Georgia. Secure your tickets before it’s gone.
Can only make it in the evening? We’ve got you covered. The show stays open after hours every Friday. Grab a drink, snag an exclusive exhibition poster, and explore the galleries at your leisure.
Nine doors, open
🎨 Submission fees start at $25, top prizes climb into the hundreds, and one call offers quiet woods and a private studio. Nine Atlanta-area opportunities are open right now for artists ready to put work in front of new eyes.
Art Happenings
🪡 Sew Relieved: Opening Reception | 6-9 p.m., July 23 | Hapeville Depot Museum.
💌 Gallery FC celebrates DR. DAX with love | 6-10 p.m., July 23 | Gallery FC.
✂️ The Glue that Binds: 20 Years of Collage and Community Pop-Up Exhibit | 6-9 p.m., July 24 | Avondale Arts Center.
🖼️ Private Collections Salon & Sale Opening Reception | 11 a.m.-3 p.m., July 25 | Jackson Fine Art. (Pictured)
Post of the Week
🎞️ From studio to screen, Atlanta ceramicist @mollysanyourceramics recently spotted her own handiwork on-screen: clay heads she sculpted later painted and bloodied as props in Apple TV’s “Cape Fear.” Catch them in Season 1, Episode 5.
🖋️ Today’s Sketchbook was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
