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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#242: Fine Art

Museums are magical places. There’s something so special about admiring art in sacred, silent spaces, together with complete strangers. In museums, time is suspended; you can forget about the outside world and lose yourself in the paintings, sculptures, and other artwork around you.


This week, let’s write some stories inspired by art and museums. Think about some of your favorite galleries, or consider creating a brand-new museum the world has yet to see. Let your imagination run wild, and maybe even try writing in a new genre. For this contest, the sky’s the limit!

This week's prompts

Write about a gallery whose paintings come alive at night.

Fantasy – 66 stories

Write about someone who accidentally destroys a museum’s most valuable artifact.

Funny – 31 stories

Write about an art thief who is struggling to commit the perfect heist.

Adventure – 31 stories

Write about two characters who meet and/or fall in love in a museum.

Romance – 98 stories

Start or end your story with a character who gets trapped inside a museum overnight.

Thriller and Suspense – 38 stories

Stories

“Banality” by Chase Haden

Submitted to Contest #242

I mopped the floor just like the night before, and the night before that, and every other night since I started working at this museum. I thought I might have already mopped this bit of floor, but I could never be sure. Hard to remember details like that with the same routine day in and day out. I didn't mind though. I always did love me a good routine. “Have a good night,” said Jim. The end of his shift was the beginning of mine, he must have ran long again. “Keeping you late?” “Yeah, some kid on the last tour lost his lunch before he could...

8 comments 8
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“expect the unexpected” by Megan Flores

Submitted to Contest #242

“UGH! Why does this always seem to happen to me?! Alice said under her breath. She was sitting in the women’s restroom in one of the stalls for a discreet smoke break when the lights turned off. Her friends forced her to go on this blind date with some random man they knew from their book club and since Alice just got out of a two year relationship they thought that pushing her back into love would be the best idea. Alice only agreed to make her friends happy. Taking one last long puff from her vape, Alice opened the stall door and did the a...

2 comments 2
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“Holding the Stone of Kings” by Elaine Elliott

Submitted to Contest #242

Abby slipped through the metal detector. Wearing black slacks and a colorful woven Guatemalan huipil blouse, she nodded politely at the man holding the tray with her small purse as she retrieved it. Her partner Ryan followed, picking up his phone and keys, and the two of them sauntered into the MUNAG, the Museo National de Arte Guatemalteca. Free, located on the Antigua central park in the immense old yellow building of the Capitanes Generales from the Spanish colonial era, a few other guests entered behind them.   They meandered t...

0 comments 0
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“The Big Salad. ” by Tee Farewell

Submitted to Contest #242

Nathan, a master art thief, skillfully infiltrated the most secure galleries and museums. However, he also yearned for recognition as a struggling artist. One day, he devised a cunning plan: to sneak one of his own paintings into a prestigious gallery. But as he surveyed the gallery's treasures, he faced a dilemma: which piece should he replace? As calm as a patron admiring art on display, Nathan weighed his options. Should he swap the famous Monet or the iconic Rodin sculpture? The irony of his situation amused him – a skilled thief now att...

2 comments 2
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“Impressionistic Love” by Rudy Greene

Submitted to Contest #242

It was 1974 and I was on my first tour of Europe. My student rail pass allowed me to travel cheaply through Western Europe. My backpack and sleeping bag were my only luggage and slept most nights in hostels or public parks. I was one of hundreds of international students travelling the continent that summer. We all had our stories. Most travelers were in pairs, I was solo. My best friend, Bob, had bailed at the last minute. I figured travelling alone would force me to break out of my shyness. So far, it hadn’t worked. I was f****** lone...

6 comments 6
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“Masterpiece” by Chantyl Balshaw

Submitted to Contest #242

The building was old, gray, and stood high to the sky. This art museum was one of New York’s best and being an art major she thought she would observe some of the best. In all her two years in New York, she’s yet to visit a museum. Some would say her first twenty-two years of life were ordinary and borderline boring. She entered the museum through massive glass double doors, art masterpieces everywhere, wall to wall. She didn’t know where to start. So, she veered on the safe side and picked the most famous piece in front of her. The Mona Lis...

2 comments 2
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“La Menina” by Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #242

It was a beautiful autumn day when my world turned upside down. I was about to cross the ocean to my first big business meeting overseas, and I had been preparing every detail of the event for months. Due to our company policy, each site's representatives had to take different flights, so I was alone that morning. The materials to present were available on each of our laptops, and I had secured safety copies on external hard drives. There was no way I would leave any detail out of my control. I arrived early at the airport, giving me four ho...

10 comments 10
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“How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #242

Standing in front of the Human Experience Museum’s farm exhibit, Curator C-114 drones, “This panoramic view represents what life was like on a farm run by humans before the Great Reckoning.” The exhibit depicts a woman wearing a floral apron looking inside an oven at a rising loaf of bread. On the other side of the exhibit, a man in a straw hat wearing coveralls sits on a tractor, happily sucking on a corn cob pipe as he culls a field of wheat. A model HW-41 android points at the mannequin of a blonde girl with pigtails petting a four-legge...

9 comments 9
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“A Spark Between Colors” by Jordan Verner

Submitted to Contest #242

Amelia's studied a stunning portrait of a young woman draped in a flowing brown fur coat and wearing a black velvet hat. The woman's piercing sapphire eyes seemed to follow her every movement, drawing Amelia into their depths. With a hint of a baby bump barely concealed by the flowing fabric of the dress beneath, the woman in the painting captivated viewers. Whispers swirled that she was the artist's muse, perhaps even his secret lover. Was this portrait a mere artistic expression or a coded message hinting at a forbidden romance? Lost in th...

2 comments 2
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“Her Sword” by Adam West

Submitted to Contest #242

She comes alive at night. A scroll of ridged and patterned paper, cautiously folded into the shape of a woman. Two-and-a-half towering metres of beauty and power and quiet judgement. By day, she’s stoic in her rightful place above us all, her hand stretched toward the ceiling, knelt in mock servitude as if she could ever be governed. At night, life explodes from her pages and she dances between the boundaries of her podium. We met here. Besides her sculptor’s musty flat, the Other Art Museum is the only place she’s ever seen. They brought...

0 comments 0
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“Cream and Coffee” by Becky Blanton

Submitted to Contest #242

Finn had only two reasons for sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling abstract painting every afternoon from 1-to-5 p.m. — Sarah and Edward. Sarah worked the museum’s pastry, coffee, and card shop, selling post-card reproductions of the museum’s most popular artwork, and Edward, her boss, who offered Finn the cold dregs of coffee and uneaten pastries as the shop closed at 5 p.m. each day. Edward hated to waste food and preferred to give it away rather than throw it away. It wasn’t that Finn couldn’t afford to buy hot coffee and fresh pastri...

5 comments 5
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“The Writers' Museum” by George Beasley

Submitted to Contest #242

(excuse the mess..it's still in edit)She came to the museum everyday. She always made her way to my exhibit. She came with friends from time to time making sure she brought them right past me. As if she was showing me off. Oh my, how beautiful she was, long brown hair and big beautiful brown eyes that match her ever so elegant style. Her presence in the museum was intoxicating to all that saw her. She seemed to flow like a light wind when she arrived. It only made sense that she came here every day, she was a great writer herself. It’s ...

2 comments 2
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“A Hot Day” by Leslie Kirc

Submitted to Contest #242

Waves of long green leaves tumbled down to the arbor path on both sides; leaving only enough room to walk single file. The blue flowers sticking up among them were the size of two fists put together waving on long stems. They gave the feel of a watery existence. The arbor was lushly covered with wisteria giving the day a cool feel. The pronounced smell of roses in my mind was turned into the smell of brine. It was joyful to walk down this path parting the waters like Mosses. The illusion and contrast momentarily took my mind off the extreme ...

5 comments 5
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“Diary Of a Truth Seeker March 2066” by Stephen Laviera

Submitted to Contest #242

The early morning dew of Mother nature is ephemeral. The sun rises on its own timing. Never too soon, nor too early. An elderly man strolls merrily along an unbeaten path. Thoughtless though present he sighed with relief. Seeing the bench he always sits atop the summit. Where he’s watched the sun rise for the past fifty years. He chuckles with delight, finally comfortable in his uncomfortable dream.“Always pleasant when a vision comes from the beloved. I’ll be back in his bosom when I’m called.”     He sat in silence...

5 comments 5
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“Souls of the Louvre” by Manu Villegas

Submitted to Contest #242

I met her at dusk.  The Louvre was closing; I stood by the statues of the gods, trying my very best to replicate the sculptures in my drawing pad. The attempt was in vain—I was only beginning to explore my artistry at the time, though the expertise in the carved stone proved too difficult for my stiff hands.  I loosened my tie, still admiring Zeus’ strong jaw, when the darkness began to creep through the windows. This hindered my ability to sketch, and I put the pad back in my pocket, beginning to tread slowly across the room, look...

3 comments 3
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$250

Prize money

264

Contest entries

118

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 22, 2024 EST

Won by Niamh O'Dea 🏆

Title: Do Not Touch

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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