This is an open invitation to all artists. I would like to personally invite you to join in this collaborative art project for Catalyst, "Artists Together."

In an age that is increasingly creating individualism and an unconscious separation from true community, we are fighting back. This year at Catalyst, we want to bring communities together for bigger ideas than individuals could do on their own. So, we are calling all artists to join in this fresh story of intentional community. We are calling artists from all over the nation to submit their artistic expression of what "together" means to them. Our hope is to create an art installation of the work created as an exhibit at Catalyst in October. As we receive these creations, we will be featuring the pieces online, promoting your work, linking to your website, sharing your stories, and together offering a beautiful example of creating an exhibit together through the Catalyst Blog.

WHAT DOES 'TOGETHER' MEAN? It is difficult to define and laser focus our ideas around what together means this early in the conversation. Between now and the event we will have numerous creative meetings to really define our distinct definition of our theme and how to communicate that at the event. In the mean time, the best we can give you is a manifesto of some thoughts we have in relation to this theme. Hopefully, one of these thought progressions will resonate with your creation.

1. A leader is dependant on others - people you influence, people who influence with you, and people that create with you. You can't be isolated and expect to succeed; to succeed we need each other.
2. Catalyst has an uncanny ability to bring leaders together.
3. There are unfortunate things separating communities of faith today including denomination, ethnicity, gender, and politics ... lets try to limit the things that are not essential and focus on the things that unite us.
4. Imagine the Church working together to be the church. What could happen?
5. We are shaped by others around us, and must rely on others to win as a team.
6. This is the largest gathering in the country of like-minded young leaders.
7. Being at Catalyst is a great way to catch up with friends from around the nation and world.
8. Community is found by working together (thanks to Mike Metzger and the Fermi Project interview).
9. Jesus had 3, and then 12 and then 120 - a social network (thanks to Andy Crouch).
10. The world has never been so small (globalization), lets think about community from the aspect of our global neighborhood and take advantage of the global community by introducing leaders from around the world.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES We are looking for a wide array of artistic expressions and mediums represented. We do not want to limit the creations in any way, so please create how you see best fit. Please submit a high resolution version of your creation and a picture of the artist to jeff@jeffshinabarger.com by May 9. By submitting your work, you give digital rights to Catalyst for digital distribution, prints, and to exhibit the collection, while giving credit to the artist. Catalyst will not offer any original art pieces for sale unless agreed upon with the artist. By submitting your artwork, Catalyst agrees to promote you and your artwork however they see fit in the months and days ahead and will communicate with the artist as they promote the work. Catalyst may or may not ask to have a video or audio interview with selected artists to promote the work and project.

Thank you for participating in this project with us.