JAMESTOWN – Women Create is extending its deadline for women to submit work for consideration for its second biennial juried exhibit of women’s art.

Artist and instructor Debra Eck and photographer Jennifer Schlick are creative directors for the exhibit that will be at the 3rd On 3rd Gallery at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts in downtown Jamestown.

“With our juror being a faculty member at SUNY Fredonia,” Schlick said.”We realized that she won’t be able to begin the jurying process until after the end of the academic semester, so we decided to give our artists additional time to prepare their submissions.”

Deadline for applications has been extended from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15. Artists will be notified of the juror’s decisions by the end of the first full week of January 2014. Accepted artists will be required to deliver their pieces in person or to make arrangements directly with the gallery for shipping.

Juror for the show will be Dr. Leesa Rittelmann, Associate Professor of Art History at SUNY Fredonia. Dr. Rittelmann’s teaching and research focus on Modern and Contemporary art in Europe and the United States, with an emphasis on the intersection between gender, race and nationality in artistic production and reception. She holds a B.S. degree in Museum Education from Penn State University as well as M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The University of Pittsburgh.

A former Curatorial and Research Assistant at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art, Rittelmann recently curated the 2013 exhibition “Gone Viral: Medical Science and Contemporary Textile Art” for SUNY Fredonia’s Marion Art Gallery. Her current research investigates the relationship between labor, gender, craft, and political activism in the public sphere.

Applications are being accepted from women of all ages in any media, and artists from Western New York, Northwestern Pennsylvania, and Northeastern Ohio are encouraged to apply. The opening reception for the exhibit will be on Saturday, March 1, 2014, and it will close on SWAN Day, March 29. A series of salons and other related activities will take place in the gallery during that time.

SWAN Day, which stands for Support Women Artists Now, is an annual event held on the last Saturday in March, Women’s History Month, and in the weeks surrounding that date. First celebrated in 2008, it is an international holiday designed to showcase the power and diversity of women’s creativity.

Women Create grew out of Eck’s collaboration with Shane Hawkins at Jamestown’s Infinity Visual and Performing Arts to host a SWAN Day event in 2011.

More information and complete guidelines for applying for the exhibit are on the Women Create website, www.womencreate.org.