Apply for Membership

The Ontario Society of Artists

A New Application Form is available now for 2012.

 The Ontario Society of Artists annually reviews applications for membership from professional artists.

The images submitted by artists interested in membership will be juried by the Membership Selection Committee. Please note that we are accepting digital images only, to be submitted on a CD. Download the information, from the OSA website, for submitting digital images.
A short list of candidates for membership will be asked to bring original work in for final jurying by the General OSA Membership.
If you have exhibited twice in an OSA Open Juried Exhibition (held at the John B. Aird Gallery) in the past 5 years, your membership application will be automatically advanced to the short list for final jurying.
When submitting images for the membership jury, it is important that the images represent your strongest recent work, completed in the last 5 years, and it is helpful to the jury if what you are presenting is consistent, as opposed to representing the entire range of your work. It is difficult for a jury to assess an entry which includes one figurative piece, one landscape, a still life, an abstract, etc. Images of your studio and process will be an addition enhancement for the jury to understand your commitment to the Visual Arts.
Depending on the nature of your art practice, some combination of the following should be demonstrated:

    •     Distinctive aesthetic vision / individuality of approach to subject or context / strong visual qualities / evidence of creative enquiry or reflection  /  conceptual ideas
    •    Technical competence / successful realization of ideas / quality of process.

Because the OSA is an organization of professional artists, please make sure that in your accompanying CV, statement and artwork images you have:
    •    Evidence of your recent exhibitions, activity and other involvement as an artist.
    •    A clear statement of your ideas, areas of interest and processes. (How?... and why?... do you do your artwork?)
    •    Detailed documentation of your work, for example, title, size, medium, etc.

****(For the final jurying only) Please also include a brief summary, in point form, of the highlights of your Visual Arts career, awards, and experience.


When you are invited to bring work in for the short list final jurying, it does not have to be the work you submitted on CD. This means that you can send, for initial jurying, images of work which has sold, or work which may not be easy to transport.
The application form will be available by January of every year. 
If, for any reason, you are unable to open or download the application or instructions, please email us, and we will be happy to send the files to you as a pdf file.