Call for Submissions: Art and Arts Writing, The Secret Door

Laura Thipphawong, A Dangerous Game, Oil on Canvas, 2017

Publish Your Writing or Showcase Your Art
The Secret Door, an Online Critical Arts Publication

The Secret Door is a Toronto-based online critical arts and culture publication that prioritizes meaning, individualism, and accessibility. The articles and art we publish focus on authenticity, relatability, critical conversations, lived experience, and the sometimes veiled aspects of art and culture.

The publication was founded in recognition of the need for critical arts writing that subverts popular, exclusionary, and surface-level discourse. We view art through a curious and exploratory lens. We treat artists as people, not products. This is a place for art lovers to examine, appreciate, analyze, and engage with art as a form of sincere personal expression.

What We’re Looking For

We want to hear from passionate artists and writers about distinctive ideas, issues, and art. The topics aren’t always controversial or hard-hitting; sometimes they’re just odd or offbeat, and sometimes they’re a slice of life, something uniquely personal.

We do not publish work that relies heavily on the news and partisan politics. There are plenty of news and current events publications out there. This is a place for philosophical and critical examinations of art.

We hate that we have to say this, but all work needs to be written by humans. No AI or any other form of plagiarism or sneaky cobbling together of work that’s not 100% yours. We don’t like those kinds of shenanigans. All work will be run through a paid AI and plagiarism checker and discarded if not your own.

Types of Submissions

Writing

Criticism: Op-ed pieces or critical research essays on historical or contemporary issues and ideas within art and culture. We prefer topics on the more obscure or neglected areas of conversation, but if you pitch a widely covered topic, please approach it from a uniquely critical standpoint.

History: We want to hear about little-known or underexplored topics in art history, whether it’s a close reading of one painting based on intersectional research or a survey of circus clowns in 19th-century paintings.

Art/Life: This series includes personal essays and alternative prose. The theme is wide open as long as it concerns art or your experiences as an artist.

Interviews: Ideas for interviews or conversation pieces are welcome and should include either a request to be interviewed or a proposal to interview someone else, along with a theme or a specific topic as it relates to issues and ideas of art or art history.

A good theme or topic is crucial.

Art

The Art Showcase: A place to delve into one artwork at a time and learn about it through a close reading written by the artist. The close reading should offer insight into the work’s intention and purpose, the story behind its creation, and the meaning of its content. Think of it as a micro-essay or an exhibition statement solely for the one piece of art.

Selection Process

All submissions will be viewed. Please allow for a roughly one-week turnaround before receiving a response. If accepted, written work will be assigned a deadline in conversation with the editor and then it will go into the drafting and editing phase. Accepted art submissions will go straight to publication, though the close reading may be edited slightly for grammar if needed.

Due to time constraints, only accepted submissions will receive a response.

Frequent contributing writers (three or more articles, not Art Showcases) will receive a dedicated page on the website with a bio and links.

All articles and all Art Showcases on the website will credit the author and/or artist and include links to their website and social media accounts. Each published article and Art Showcase will also be featured on our Instagram account.

The Secret Door is a not-for-profit labour of love. For the time being, all contributing writers are accepted on a volunteer basis.

What to Submit

Writing

Proposed subject and/or title of the article, an estimated word count, a summary of the subject and your thesis or intended approach, and an explanation for why you’re the right person to cover this subject.

Articles that are already written or published elsewhere are welcome, so long as you maintain the rights.

Art

We focus on work that leans strongly towards the representational, narrative, strange, and unconventional, but we will also accept other types of work as long as it’s meaningful in one way or another. Submit an image of your artwork along with a short (100-500-word) essay about the piece.

We are not interested in art made for aesthetic purposes only, or work that serves as a political or didactic statement separate from the artist themselves.

How To Submit

Submit writing or artwork through our website.

Submission Deadline: Ongoing

For additional information or questions, please contact:
Laura Thipphawong
info@thesecretdoor.ca

Secret Door
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
www.thesecretdoor.ca
info@thesecretdoor.ca
@thesecretdoor.ca

Image Description:
1. Painting of three women in a large room with Victorian furniture and a lava floor.