Museum and YouTube search for the world's most creative video

Guggenheim Foundation, together with YouTube, the world's largest online video community, yesterday announced the launch of YouTube Play. A Biennial of Creative Video.

A collaboration with HP, YouTube Play was conceived to discover and showcase the most exceptional talent working in the ever-expanding realm of online video.

Open to the global online community, YouTube Play is the most inclusive international search for new creative video. A jury of experts comprising celebrated figures from the worlds of art, design, film, and entertainment will select up to 20 videos submitted from around the world to be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on October 21, with simultaneous presentations at the Guggenheim museums in Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice. The works will also be available to a worldwide audience on the special YouTube Play channel at youtube.com/play.

"The Guggenheim, YouTube, and HP share a view that creative online video is one of the most compelling and innovative opportunities for personal expression today," said Richard Armstrong, director of the Solomon R.

Guggenheim Foundation and Museum. "The project team came together to inspire and encourage the creation and celebration of this art form. YouTube Play demonstrates this is within the reach of anyone who uses a computer and has access to the internet."

"With this online global initiative, we're not looking for what's 'now,' we're looking for what's next," said Nancy Spector, deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Foundation. "In the last two decades, there has been a paradigm shift in visual culture.

"YouTube has redefined media culture by changing the way the world creates, distributes, and watches video," said Ed Sanders, Senior Marketing Manager.

The goal of this unprecedented project is to discover and celebrate work that expands the notion of what video can be. Submissions may include any form of creative video, including art, animation, motion graphics, narrative and non-narrative work, or entirely new art forms.

YouTube Play hopes to attract innovative, original, and surprising videos from around the world, regardless of genre, technique, background, or budget. Participants can be art students or amateur video makers as well as creative professionals.

The deadline for submission is July 31. The Guggenheim will identify up to 200 videos which willbe viewable on the YouTube Play channel at youtube.com/play.