CELA is seeking an illustrator to collaborate on our website, which brings together contemporary voices and stories from across Europe. The reading section highlights eight portals—themes that reflect the challenges, connections, and shared experiences shaping Europe today and tomorrow. Following the series of illustrations previously created by Iván Mcgill for the first cycle of the current project, we invite proposals from illustrators to create a cohesive set of editorial illustrations for our literary stories. 

The open call is an invitation for artists to explore visually what the concept of ‘Europe’ means for today’s reality. Each illustration should both represent the specific theme and carry the artist’s personal interpretation. This is an opportunity to contribute visually to a growing cultural exchange, and to shape how readers connect with the topics and stories that matter most in Europe now.

How to Apply
Please send your application to erik@wintertuin.nl by October 12th. Your application should include:

• A short introduction about yourself and your artistic practice
• A portfolio or selection of recent works (PDF or link)
• A brief statement (max. 300 words) on how you would approach illustrating the 8 portals and your vision of European identity

The selected illustrator will be commissioned to create the final set of illustrations in collaboration with the CELA team, and will be paid according to the fair pay practice guidelines of their national context.

Themes
​​​​​Alone with the World: Portraits of the struggle to find belonging in a world that feels unfamiliar
Mindbenders: Provoke your survival skills. Expose yourself to danger, exciting mysteries and mindbending realities
Where the Wild Things Grow: Explore our connections with ecology, rituals, the cosmos, and the pressing climate challenges of our time
A Change is Gonna Come: Reflect on themes of resistance, power dynamics, and the insistence on transformation for another now
Should I Stay or Should I Go: Take a journey through the tension between staying and leaving, journeys of personal growth and travelogues
Through the Rabbit Holes: Wander into magical realms and fantastical worlds where reality is constantly redefined or questioned
Ourselves and Others: Explore identity and connection through the body, family dynamics and self-reflection
​​​​​​​Time After Time: explore or alter the physics, the histories and the inevitability of time