Artists living and/or working within 100 miles of downtown Chicago are invited to submit works to the 31st Annual Plaza Art Competition and Exhibition at the Beverly Arts Center. Applications are available online at www.beverlyartcenter.org, and must be postmarked by Oct. 1, 2007.

Judging the works this year are noted Chicago artists Winifred Godfrey and Brian Ritchard.

A professional painter since 1974, Winifred Godfrey grew up around the corner from the old Beverly Arts Center in Chicago?s Beverly neighborhood. In the 1980s she won a top award in the Arthur and Alice Baer Art Competition -- now The Plaza Art Competition. It was her first monetary prize as an artist.

?Beverly Arts Center is one of the only places in Chicago that holds a competitive show with prize money that is open to all artists,? Godfrey said. ?It helped me get a start as an artist.
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Now a resident of Lincoln Park, Godfrey is best known for her spellbinding floral paintings and ?Mayan Procession,? an acclaimed series of life size portraits of indigenous Mayan people in ceremonial dress that was exhibited at the BAC is July 2006. Her works can be found in many private collections and museums throughout including the Illinois State Museum, Northwestern University Norris Center, Portland (Oregon) Museum and Rochester (Minnesota) Art Center. Her works have been exhibited nationally.
Her work has won extensive recognition, including a Best of Show ? Painting in the Old Town Art Fair. Her work has been was used on posters for Old Town Art Fair and Tulip Time Festival, Holland, Mich.

Brian Ritchard, currently a resident of Chicago?s Beverly neighborhood, serves on the Beverly Art Center Gallery Committee and has been an active BAC volunteer. Currently an adjunct instructor at Columbia College Chicago and the Graham School of General Studies at The University of Chicago, Ritchard has served on various panels and has been a visiting artist at several institutions.
Ritchard?s work has exhibited extensively in Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta and elsewhere, and has been published in the Chicago Tribune, New American Paintings, North Shore Magazine and New City among other publications.
Ritchard exhibited his recent works, ?The Crop Series,? at the BAC in spring 2007. The paintings are executed on shaped panels that remove the familiar four corners of frames, and use landscape to examine the how perceptions of nature are shaped by history and culture.

Eligible for consideration in the Plaza Art Competition are two-dimensional works (oils, watercolors, photographs, prints, etc.) and sculpture, including fiber, wood and ceramic. Cash awards range from $1,500 to $100, and are provided by The Plaza Shopping Center, Evergreen Park.

Artists may submit color slides or digital jpegs on CD of up to three separate works. Slides/CDs of accepted works will be retained by the Beverly Arts Center. A non-refundable $30 fee ($25 for Beverly Arts Center members) is required with applications, which must be postmarked by Oct. 1. Artists will be notified Oct. 17 to 20.

The work of Plaza Art Competition finalists will be on exhibit in the Beverly Arts Center Nov. 2 through Jan. 5, 2008. An opening reception and awards ceremony is scheduled for Fri., Nov. 2, 7 p.m.

The Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St., Chicago, is a not-for-profit regional fine arts center that offers multi-discipline, multi-cultural programming and education.

For information, call 773-445-3838 or visit www.beverlyartcenter.org.