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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

“Vincent” by Joseph Citta

Submitted to Contest #242

Vincentby Joseph CittaMy brother died a month ago. The word devastation does not even hint at the way I felt - and still do. It’s like a claustrophobic cloud has surrounded me, preventing me from taking full breaths. A mind altering headache has been raging since his funeral. My head feels like it’s in a vise getting tighter and tighter. Crushed. Before this, God was never something or someone I had ever trusted in, but now I needed him. My brother was younger than me. He had grown to be my guru - ever since he came into this world when I wa...

7 comments 7
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“Emory at Nightfall” by Nicole Westerhouse

Submitted to Contest #242

Francis felt the color return to his cheeks as he stepped out of the crisp fall air, entering the grand hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The magnificent marble floors and soaring ceilings felt all too familiar, like a second home. His friends could never quite understand why he chose to spend a Friday evening here. They were much fonder of the pulsing neon night clubs on Christopher. But Francis felt much more content amidst the vibrant colors and intricate brush strokes that brought to life wonderous worlds of adventures that Francis...

1 comment 1
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“Checkmate” by Khadija S. Mohammad

Submitted to Contest #242

If only I could escape from this endless portrait of monotony. I cannot stand it much longer. But before I continue, I believe an explanation is in order. Before I was as I am now, a me— character in this painting, I was a half-finished shape, complete only in imagination. Before that,— was a single stroke of a brush, and before even that I was only an idea, full of potential. I was most beautiful as an idea, for the human mind is not bound in images. The chess-board in front of me seems to gloat, and for a moment I feel that its owner gloat...

10 comments 10
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“What You See” by Kathy Walsh

Submitted to Contest #242

Situated in the center of the quiet little town, sits the small Gallery of the History of Modern Art. It is unobtrusive yet houses many curious pieces of art from across the generations and various artists. It is a lovely place to spend a leisure afternoon, roaming from exhibit to exhibit allowing the art to speak to oneself. On any given day, the art can be interpreted in so many ways. The brushwork itself causes one to feel the emotion of the artist as they sat and painted the scene in front of them. Today was no d...

7 comments 7
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“The Secret Life of Paintings” by Denise Glickler

Submitted to Contest #242

The door below closed upon the inverted cupcake which was the museum. From 92 feet above, the light from the glass dome dimmed as the sun set, and the night lighting came to life, automatically signaling the end of another day and the beginning of the secret adventure.The ramp that swirls around the building’s interior, leaving a void – a heart, of sorts – in the middle seemed bare, empty of footprints and sound. For the briefest of moments there was a lull, a silence. No breath heard, no sound. It was peaceful.Then things changed.It began w...

6 comments 6
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“The Mountain of Light ” by Julia Rajagopal

Submitted to Contest #242

As his painting slides out of the crate, the Maharaja, Duleep Singh, opens his large brown eyes. Several white-gloved conservators carefully grip his frame and ease him onto the wall. Duleep freezes while the livings are there. A dozen men and women stand before his painting as the conservators gently adjust the security features behind the frame.A warm, dry breeze blows through the silk gathered at Duleep’s waist. He feels the breeze, but the fabric remains still. It never moves while livings are present outside of the frame. The artist pai...

6 comments 6
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“Red” by Christine Johnson

Submitted to Contest #242

The curator prepares my crate for departure. It was not supposed to be this way. My long-term exhibition cut short by the damn kid in white. I think you would feel the same way if you knew my story. For years, I sat above the mantle in a stuffy newly decorated poorly done vintage-vibe den in a benefactor of a benefactor’s home. He had me outlined in mahogany to emphasize my red dress. I am not sure if my creator was trying to highlight my wearables, but this so-called art affinando chose my red dress as the element he car...

5 comments 5
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“"Echo from the Portrait of Time"” by Caleb Chauvin

Submitted to Contest #242

“You’re not looking too spry today, Farthing!”, a well-dressed man in a maroon waistcoat, shiny black shoes, and a cane, around 5 and a half feet tall stated, looking at a young 6-foot man, probably in his 20’s, slouched back on a park bench with legs crossed, hands on his left knee, and his chin on his chest as if asleep.His eyes quickly shot up stating “Say what?” in the typical British fashion of speaking. Looking up, his blue eyes, light brown moustache and strong square jawline are seen from underneath a rough brown 1920’s Brooklyn news...

10 comments 10
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“Don't Touch the Art” by Emily Santana

Submitted to Contest #242

I always imagined that I would spend an awful amount of time during my twenties inside of museums and art galleries when I was younger. It was the activity that I looked the most forward to. I would think to myself, ‘I could be there all on my own. I won’t need my parents or my older siblings to supervise me.’ I relished the idea of being around art by myself. There would be strangers in the building with me of course, but none of them would know who I am. There would be no one to distract me with their side conversations, no one to rush me ...

2 comments 2
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“Lifetime Lumbering” by Maureen MacLennan

Submitted to Contest #242

Lifetime Lumbering Up until this visit to Italy Bridget, had avoided museums like the plague. She’d been one of those clumsy kids, all arms and legs in the wrong place, and things seemed to throw themselves on the floor when they saw her coming. She always imagined that the vases considered suicide a much preferable option than being accidentally elbowed by an eight-year-old. Now, twenty years later, she was on her honeymoon with Richard and about to enter the doors of a gallery in Venice. So, it was up to her husband to keep her close and t...

4 comments 4
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“Noah's Mark” by Andre B. Corbin

Submitted to Contest #242

On the corner of Weteringstraat and Lijnbaansgracht, Noah Vanderbilt sat at a table in front of the Back to Black café drinking his third coffee of the morning as he waited for the Hopi Boy. As a master thief, no, a magnificent master thief, Noah amended, he prided himself on his nerves of steel, but his now empty espresso cup still chattered as he set it back on its saucer.           Too much caffeine, Noah thought. Not nerves. Or fear. But, Noah was (mostly) honest with himself and kne...

4 comments 4
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“A Kiss From Death” by Azar Rose

Submitted to Contest #242

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved going to museums with my grandparents.They’d always tell me about the paintings and their meanings and every time without fail they’d tell me how they met at the very same museum we walked through.They’d tell me it was love at first sight. They met at a painting where a girl is being saved by her lover. My grandma would tell me about how that was her favourite painting, how every time she came here she’d sit in front of it and just enjoy the precise strokes of the paintbrush, the detail put into the emotion...

0 comments 0
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“The Leap” by Cynthia Lara

Submitted to Contest #242

“Please call someone! I am trapped inside the National Art Museum and my phone is ab- -” You whimpered as the battery of your phone died. How did you get lost in the museum you have known since you were a little girl? Your hands tremble, but little by little, fear transforms into excitement. There’s a new exhibit on the Mayan culture and your heritage is calling. Your grandma always told you you had to learn about your ancestors, but you never made the time. Today you miscalculated your museum itinerary and got distracted by the natural...

6 comments 6
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“Museum of the Mind” by Douglas Smith

Submitted to Contest #242

Please note this story touches on mental health, domestic abuse and self harm subject matter. These subjects are not treated lightly and are not explored at length but are referenced within the overall story. Whispers. It always started with the whispers. The room was crowded but slowly emptied as wandering thoughts faded away throughout the day. Moments in time carefully captured and curated throughout the course of my life were cautiously displayed within the museum of my mind. Some moments sheltered memories other oppressively contained h...

6 comments 6
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“Favors and Promises” by Oliver Gray

Submitted to Contest #242

I refuse to give her more power over me than she already has by admitting she was the one who drove me crazy. I had always been insane and had always been bound to lose all sense of reality the way a wet painting or an uncapped marker were bound to go dry. She just happened to be the one who wrenched it out of me to present to the whole world, like a magician showing his audience - which really wasn’t all that surprised - the dove he had just pulled out of his hat. …I wanted the job because I loved art above everything else and I got th...

2 comments 2
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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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