Placitas Community Library has issued a call for artists – but artists can’t respond alone.

Placitas Community Library. Gary Herron photo.

The library art committee is challenging local artists to collaborate on artwork for an upcoming exhibit, which is scheduled for June 4-July 14.

“Whether you work together to imagine how your styles and media might meld or pass work back and forth, taking turns adding to the canvas, work on paper or sculpture, unmediated by your partner, we think the results will be fun, freeing and perhaps suggestive of new directions and possibilities for you both,” according to the press release sent by library public relations volunteer Pam Troutman.

The deadline to turn in a submission form is May 6. The work doesn’t have to be finished at that time, according to the library website.

According to the release, Surrealist artists, working in the 1920s and ‘30s, collaborated in a game they called “Exquisite Corpse.” Participants took turns drawing part of a body on a sheet of paper that was folded to hide past contributions until everyone had taken a turn.

As another example given in the release, artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat worked together in the 1980s, with Warhol making marks on a canvas and Basquiat adding his images on top.

“The outcomes of such collaborations (and there are many more in the history of modern and contemporary art) were unpredictable, often unimagined at the outset by the artists themselves and very different from each artist’s typical work,” according to the release.

As with all Placitas Community Library exhibits, the work will be available for sale and 25 percent of proceeds benefits the library, with the rest going to the artists.

The shows are displayed in the Gracie Lee Community Room and are available for viewing during normal library hours, when the room isn’t in use for a scheduled program.

Placitas Community Library, at 453 NM 165 in Placitas, is open Sundays from 1-4 p.m., Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information and submission forms, visit placitaslibrary.com/programs/art-exhibits/call-for-artists/artist-submission/. For questions not addressed on the website, email [email protected].