Dear Creatures, Big And Small: Submit to Arts To Hearts Project’s New Artsy Exhibition

Animals have always found their way into art. Sometimes they are simply part of the world around us: a beloved pet curled up at home, a bird resting on a windowsill, horses running through a landscape, or a tiny insect that catches an artist’s attention for just a moment. Other times, animals carry something much larger. They can become symbols of freedom, companionship, survival, memory, mythology, instinct, or even parts of stories that exist entirely in the imagination.

At Arts to Hearts Project, our work has always been rooted in creating meaningful opportunities for artists to share those stories. Over the past six years, we have built platforms and initiatives that bring artists together across different backgrounds, mediums, and stages of their careers. Our projects have led to more than 35 curated art books and included the work of over 10,000 artists from around the world.

Now, with our official presence on Artsy, we are continuing that journey through thoughtfully curated online exhibitions that give artists another space to present their work and connect with new audiences.

Our latest open call, Dear Creatures, Big and Small, invites artists to look toward the animal world and see where their own creative perspective takes them.

An Exhibition About Animals and Everything They Can Mean

Dear Creatures, Big and Small is an open call exploring the many ways animals appear in art. The theme is intentionally wide. You might find inspiration in the animals you encounter every day, the wildlife you have always been fascinated by, a creature from an old story, or something that has existed only in your imagination.

The exhibition welcomes work featuring domestic animals, wildlife, birds, insects, marine life, reptiles, prehistoric and extinct animals, mythical creatures, and imagined beings. Perhaps you want to paint the quiet companionship between a person and their dog. Maybe you are drawn to the movement of birds, the strangeness of deep-sea creatures, the history of an extinct species, or an animal that has appeared in folklore for centuries.

Your animal does not have to be represented literally, either. It can become a metaphor, a character, a symbol, a memory, or part of a much larger narrative.

Artists may explore ideas around human and animal relationships, companionship, instinct, survival, freedom, nature, environment, memory, symbolism, mythology, identity, and storytelling.

The animal might be the central subject of the work, or it might quietly hold the meaning underneath it.

That openness is part of what makes this exhibition so exciting. There is room for a familiar creature, a forgotten one, and even one that has never existed at all.

Bring Your Own Interpretation To The Theme

One of the lovely things about working with a broad theme is seeing how differently artists respond to the same idea. For one artist, an animal might bring back a childhood memory. For another, it might open a conversation about the natural world. Someone else might approach the theme through mythology or history, while another artist might create an entirely imagined creature with its own story.

Dear Creatures, Big and Small leaves space for all of these approaches.

The exhibition welcomes all mediums and styles, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, printmaking, collage, mixed media, digital art, illustration, installation, and experimental or interdisciplinary practices.

Works can be realistic, abstract, conceptual, symbolic, narrative, historical, mythical, or completely imaginative. What matters is the perspective you bring to the work and the way your artwork connects with the theme.

A Curated Exhibition On Artsy

Dear Creatures, Big and Small will be presented as a curated online exhibition by Arts to Hearts Project on Artsy, bringing together a diverse selection of artworks exploring animals through different mediums, styles, ideas, and perspectives.

Each selected artwork will be presented within a professionally curated framework, creating a cohesive viewing experience while keeping the individual voice of each artist at the centre. As an online exhibition on Artsy, the show will offer selected artists a dedicated space to present their work to an audience interested in discovering and collecting contemporary art.

All selected artworks will be available for sale during the exhibition. Arts to Hearts Project will facilitate communication between interested collectors and artists in the event of artwork inquiries or sales.

Further details about exhibition dates, selected artists, artwork presentation, and launch timelines will be shared with selected participants before the exhibition opens.

Who Can Apply?

Artists aged 18 and above from anywhere in the world are invited to apply.

Whether you are just beginning your artistic practice, building your career, or have been working professionally for years, you are welcome to submit your work. Arts to Hearts Project welcomes emerging, mid-career, and established artists, as well as artists working across diverse backgrounds and creative disciplines.

There is no single way to approach the theme. You can work realistically or abstractly. You can draw from personal experience, history, mythology, nature, memory, symbolism, storytelling, or pure imagination.

The call is open to a wide range of artistic practices, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, ceramics, textile art, printmaking, collage, mixed media, digital art, illustration, installation, and interdisciplinary work.

What matters most is the quality and originality of the work, clarity of expression, and how thoughtfully it connects with the exhibition theme.

How To Apply

Artists can submit up to 3 artworks for consideration. Each artwork should be submitted individually with complete and accurate information.

All submitted works must be original and created by the artist. For collaborative works, all contributing artists should be clearly credited within the submission.

Your work can feature any animal, creature, or interpretation that connects meaningfully with the theme. Whether you are submitting a portrait of a beloved pet, a wildlife painting, an imagined creature, a mythical figure, or something much more abstract, the work should be suitable for presentation within an online exhibition.

Please note that all submitted artworks must be available for sale and must not have been sold before submission. Artists will also need to upload high-quality images of their work. Clear, well-lit, professionally presented images are important because they allow the artwork to be represented as accurately as possible within the online exhibition.

Each submission should include:

• Artwork title
• Year of creation
• Medium
• Dimensions
• Price
• Brief artwork description or statement, where applicable

Artists must hold the full rights to all submitted work. Any copyrighted references, materials, or collaborative elements should be properly credited or authorized by the artist.

How Will The Work Be Selected?

Every open call brings together artists with different ways of working and different stories to tell. For Dear Creatures, Big and Small, selection will consider the quality, originality, presentation, relevance to the theme, and overall curatorial direction of the exhibition.

The aim is to bring together a collection that feels varied yet connected, allowing different interpretations of the animal world to sit alongside one another. Selected artists will be notified via email and through their submission dashboard.

By applying, artists grant Arts to Hearts Project permission to use submitted artwork images for exhibition, promotional, editorial, curatorial, and marketing purposes related to the project, with appropriate credit given to the artist.

The Deadline Is November 2, 2026

Artists have until 11:59 PM on November 2, 2026 to submit their work for consideration.

If you are thinking about applying, it is worth giving yourself a little time to choose your artworks, photograph them well, check your information, and complete the submission without rushing at the last minute. There are so many ways to look at the creatures that share our world, and perhaps even more ways to imagine the ones that do not.

Maybe there is an animal that has stayed with you since childhood. Maybe you have a body of work that has always circled around nature, memory, or mythology. Maybe you have been waiting for the right theme to bring a particular creature to life.

Dear Creatures, Big and Small is an invitation to bring that perspective forward. Submit the animal you know. The one you remember. The one you dream about. Or the one that exists only in your imagination. We would love to see where you take it.