We invite work into a landscape of emergence:
anticipation of soon-to-leaf trees, shrubs, insects,
birds, and soil.
Dormancy left behind.
All media: sculpture, painting, installation, sound...
Site-responsive and weather tolerant work encouraged.
Concert in the adjoining landscape to follow.
Dance.
Open to all students, alumni, faculty, staff, and the broader Ithaca community.
Birding Man was first conjured in the dormant months of 2024, born of a longing for sunshine and green leaves. Each Spring, just before the trees leaf out and respire humidity into the air —but while the sun is high in the sky— there is a short dry season in The Finger Lakes. The perfect window for planting dormant trees and dancing around the first bonfires under a clear night sky, it coincides with peak bird migration.
2024 and 2025 were just that: elation of early spring. This year we aim to cultivate connection between living landscapes and human hands: the infinite inventiveness of life itself meshed with the coupling of imaginaries and the palpable and the mycelium beneath our feet.
Join us for the first ever, third annual Birding Man.
Submit your artwork here.
Deadline Extended! Submit by Sunday April 12th!
Further Details
Participating artists will of course receive tree entry to the festival!
Artists are responsible for installing and securing their work safely. Assistance available upon request.
It may rain. If it rains hard rain, we’ll postpone. If installed early, art should withstand rain.
No power access to field (or very limited).
This is an outdoor exhibition situated within an active food forest on a working farm.
Work must be appropriate for a mixed-age public audience.
Work must not pose overt safety hazards.
Artists retain responsibility for their work.
Artists retain full ownership of their work and may indicate if work is for sale.
Organizers reserve the right to decline work that cannot be safely accommodated within the landscape (only if egregiously unsafe or uncouth).
