Get your head in gear - a search for Art & Drag in Sanford, Florida

Using selfie-photography to focus awareness on the arts in Sanford

The official #SanfordSelfie program is in the final stretch and the Gallery On First is bringing it home in style ! 

In the summer of 2014, the Downtown business Council of the Sanford Chamber of Commerce produced a one-month #SanfordSelfie event geared to engage the public with Sanford's historic downtown during the slowest month of the year. It was surprisingly successful and lots of fun for everyone.

A few months later, it became apparent that people were still posting their selfies with the  hashtag even though the competition was over. An idea was brewed to bring back the program, but now redesigned to be ongoing for one year.

 Sanford365 hosted and produced the year-long program under the direction of Claudia Mundlos and the administration of Sumalee Eaton.

The Sanford Selfie program is now in its last month and revving up to go out with a bang. 

The program's final sponsor, the Gallery On First (GoFi), is inspired and energized to make the most of this final hoorah. The GoFi artists not only want to inspire selfie photographers to be artistic with their photos, but motivate people to capture art in their selfies as well, including art as part of the subject matter in the composition of their selfie photograph.

All About the Art
The resident artists of Gallery On First are leaders in the Sanford Arts community, spearheading the initiatives for the revamped Sanford Art Walk and in full-production mode for the ground-breaking "Art is a Drag" March 19th Art Walk event. As sponsors of the last #SanfordSelfie juried competition, they want to motivate people to look for art in Sanford.

How exactly does this apply to a selfie competition, you ask?  As always, any selfie taken in Sanford and posted with the hashtag #SanfordSelfie will automatically be entered (if your privacy settings permit) into the juried competition ending with a $100 Best Picture Award. The Gallery On First is adding to your chances to win prizes with extra prizes for theme-related selfies that include visual art, and the includes the art of drag.

 As the Sanford Selfie program comes to the end, we reflect on the year-long effort to tell an authentic story of Sanford through the eyes of the people experiencing it firsthand through their selfie photography. The selfies that have been submitted through this past year shined a spotlight on all of Sanford's wonderfully heritage-rich and quirky locales, as well as the unique personalities that "Live, Work and Play" here.

It is the perfect culmination ~

What started as an inquiry of selfie photography as a kind of folk art will now be used to shine it’s light back on the arts and the artists in Sanford, Florida!

So, get out there and Selfie your Art and your Drag!
 ~ Contest ends March 31, 2016 ~