Bull Thistle Gallery
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OpenFind a place that wants something. Notice it. Return to it. Respond to it. Challenge 11: In The Wild unfolds through small interventions and observations made in relation to real places, over time. Each place becomes part of the challenge as people encounter it, act, return, and notice what happens next.
Bull Thistle presents
Make something you might not have made otherwise.
The Bull Thistle Challenge is an ongoing series of creative experiments. Each Challenge starts with a constraint: a material, format, prompt, place, process, deadline, or sometimes just an unexpected set of circumstances. Artists opt in without necessarily knowing exactly where it will lead.
No jury.
No application.
No need to be represented by a gallery.
You just have to be willing to make something new.
The work so far
| Challenge | Status | Works | Artists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Challenge 11: In The Wild Find a place that wants something. Notice it. Return to it. Respond to it. Challenge 11: In The Wild unfolds through small interventions and observations made in relation to real places, over time. Each place becomes part of the challenge as people encounter it, act, return, and notice what happens next. | Open | 0 | 0 |
| Challenge 10: 10 Prompts, 3 Formats, 30 Places Challenge 10 offered 30 places. Each prompt was given to 3 artists randomly. 10 artists each randomly received a 10" circle, a 10" square, or a 10" equilateral triangle. 4 artists received a wild card, instructing that their circle become the base for a three dimensional work. They also received 10 dollars and a suggestion that their work included something purchased at a shop in town. Pieces were sourced from River Row Books, The Elks Lodge Emporium, Home Central, and Early Owego Antiques. |
Every Challenge is different. We might hand you a tiny panel, give you an unusual shape, assign you a prompt, send you somewhere, or ask you to work within a rule you wouldn't normally choose for yourself.
Challenges have a limited number of spots. Some are first-come, some involve random assignments, and some may be invitational or happen out in the world.
Usually there's a short window to respond. The point isn't to arrive with the perfect idea. The constraint is there to get something moving.
The resulting work might become an exhibition, installation, gathering, auction, intervention, or something else entirely. The outcome changes with the Challenge.
Field notes / 01
There isn't one Bull Thistle Challenge format. The format is part of the experiment.
A 4 × 5 inch panel
One of three geometric shapes
A randomly assigned prompt
A day to make something
A place to investigate
A material you didn't choose
Adults 18+ building a creative practice
Artists. Makers. Designers. Craftspeople. Curious people.
Some Challenges may require particular skills or materials, but many are deliberately open.
You don't have to wait until you feel ready. That's sort of the point.
After the making
Depending on the Challenge, work might be exhibited at a Bull Thistle Place, appear somewhere else in the community, be offered for sale or auction, become part of an installation, or lead into something we haven't anticipated yet.
Each Challenge explains its own rules before participants commit.
The Challenge is the mechanism for making new work. What happens next is part of the experiment.
Field notes / Challenge news
See what's unfolding, and know when the next Challenge opens.
We'll send Challenge announcements, reveals, and registration openings. No general-purpose inbox clutter.
View the Challenge presentationAlready participating?
See the current Challenge →Bull Thistle · Make something
| Preparing for exhibition |
| TBD |
| TBD |
| Challenge 9: Small World Challenge 9: Small World invited 24 artists to create a work on a tiny 4 × 5-inch panel. Every artist began with the same small constraint and complete freedom over what to do with it. Together, the finished works form a cabinet-sized exhibition of 24 very different worlds; an experiment in how much can happen in very little space. | Closed | 22 | 22 |
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