ARC, having become the center for artists, collectors, and scholars, is the defining force for Contemporary Realism and excellence. We have in our ARC family an exclusive group of artists whom we have classified into the following four levels of expertise:

ARC Living Artist™ (A.R.C.L.A.) - The artist has dedicated themselves to becoming a realist artist with the wish to express our shared humanity through the visual arts. In addition, an ARC Artist™ has shown some competence and understanding of at least 3 of the basic building blocks of great art, these being for a painter: accurate drawing, compositional sensibilities, effective use of lighting, the technical ability to use modeling, glazing /scumbling, perspective, tone, hue and successful emotional expression. For a Sculptor: accurate representation of 3 dimensional objects, compositional sensibilities in 360 degrees, the technical ability to create an accurate finish to the surface of the sculpture, successful emotional expression.

ARC Associate Living Master™ (A.R.C.A.L.M.) - The artist has dedicated themselves to becoming a realist artist with the wish to express our shared humanity through the visual arts. In addition, an ARC Associate Living Master™ has shown significant skill in all of the building blocks of great art as defined in the ARC Artist™ description above. They have further developed their skills, experience and body of work to the point where they are in striking distance of becoming a full ARC Living Master as described below.

ARC Living Master™ (A.R.C.L.M.) - The artist has dedicated themselves to becoming a realist artist with the wish to express our shared humanity through the visual arts. In addition, an ARC Living Master™ has mastered all of the building blocks of great art as defined in the ARC Artist™ description, creating fully professional works of art, as well as some identifiable masterpieces. Beyond that, they have successfully created a body of work which demonstrates accomplished facility in their craft that compares to the masters of prior centuries. Their work demonstrates strong, reliable, poetic sensibilities which intertwine great universal subjects, powerful original compositions and mastery over all aspects of the craft, working seamlessly to enhance the chosen subject. They repeatedly are able to "suspend disbelief" in the viewer eliciting empathy which is rooted in our shared humanity.

ARC Living Grand Master™ (A.R.C.L.G.M.) - The artist has dedicated themselves to becoming a realist artist with the wish to express our shared humanity through the visual arts. In addition, an ARC Living Grand Master™ has mastered all of the building blocks of great art as defined in the ARC Artist™ description, creating fully professional works of art, as well as many identifiable masterpieces. Beyond that, they have successfully created a body of work which demonstrates accomplished facility in their craft that compares to the masters of prior centuries. Their work demonstrates strong, reliable, poetic sensibilities which intertwine great universal subjects, powerful original compositions and mastery over all aspects of the craft, working seamlessly to enhance the chosen subject. They repeatedly are able to "suspend disbelief" in the viewer eliciting empathy which is rooted in our shared humanity. In addition, An ARC Living Grand Master™ has gone above and beyond just working with his/her medium, and has somehow advanced the cause of art by becoming an extremely influential  instructor and/or becoming sufficiently famous in the pursuit of realism to elevate the entire genre of art. Where their name and legacy is widely accepted by other artists and experts in the realist community as one of the greatest of his or her generation. They may have also added significant new knowledge thus advancing the "state of the art" itself. If you believe you would qualify and are interested in becoming a member of the most prominent realist art foundations and would like to have your work seen by nearly 5 million yearly visitors, who are targeted art lovers, collectors, gallery owners and museum officials, ARC is now ready to review your work.

Procedure

All artists will be judged exclusively on the basis of merit by a minimum of 4 judges from the ARC Board of Judges, whose expertise and credentials are posted on the ARC website. All applicants will be notified as to whether or not they have qualified.

Acceptance into one of the categories above include many benefits:

• Living Artists are set up with a gallery on our website. Each Artist is allowed up to 30 images of their finest work. This includes 30 high-resolution images and 30 large thumbnails with the title, date, medium and dimensions of each work. Living Artists may include their biographical and contact information with their gallery of images along with any awards, reviews and commentary (must be in digital ready-to-use format).
• All ARC artists are given a Free Membership to the ARC Museum for use of high resolution images.
• ARC Artists of Associate Living Master™ status or higher may submit news items of current exhibitions, publications, notable awards, and workshops for possible inclusion in our blog.
• All ARC artists may submit information as to upcoming exhibitions of their work on ARC's Exhibitions Page.
• All ARC Artists will automatically receive regular ARC updates and prospectus for all upcoming competitions.
• All ARC Artists are invited to submit articles and essays for possible publication on the ARC website.
• If accepted as a full ARC Living Master™, all classes and workshops taught by you will automatically be considered ARC Approved and qualify for a listing on our Atelier Page and Map.

• A $75.00 non-refundable application and processing fee.
• An annual membership fee of $300.00 for all artists (with the exception of full ARC Living Masters™) accepted into the Living Artists Gallery. This fee is due every January and includes one free update a year to add new images and information.
• A one time set up fee of $200.00 is charged to help offset the costs involved in preparing the artists gallery.
• Additional images may be included in an artist's gallery at $10.00 per image during the initial set up (only applies if more than 30 are submitted and accepted).
• If the Artist wishes a second update a year in addition to the one that comes with the membership, a fee of $150 will be charged.
• If accepted as a full ARC Living Master™, the membership for the Living Masters Gallery is free and the update fee is reduced to $100.
• There is no additional fee for submitting information on exhibitions for our exhibition page.

• Signed and completed application form.
• A minimum of 15 and a maximum of 30 images of the artist's finest works. This may be submitted in the form of High-resolution digital images as JPEG or TIFF files supplied on a CD.
• Image preparation: Each submitted image must include the title of artwork, medium used to create the artwork, date, and dimensions.
• Sculptors must submit a minimum of 2 images of each sculpture from different views.
• Current CV, résumé and/or biography.
• A non-refundable $75.00 application and processing fee must be included with all submissions.

Download Application If you are interested in becoming a member of one of the largest realist art foundations and would like to have your work seen by nearly 5 million yearly visitors, who are targeted art lovers, gallery owners and museum curators, ARC is now ready to review your work. Questions regarding this application may be directed to Kara Ross at kara.ross@artrenewal.org [ MSWord | PDF ]