NEW YORK, NY.- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, together with YouTube, the world’s largest online video community, today 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, 2010, 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. The moving image has been fully absorbed into critical contemporary art practices, and now we are witnessing the power of the Internet to catalyze and disseminate new forms of digital media, including online video. This collaborative project with YouTube and HP will highlight some of the most innovative work being produced today and will draw on the Guggenheim’s ongoing commitment to new media.”

“YouTube has redefined media culture by changing the way the world creates, distributes, and watches video,” said Ed Sanders, Senior Marketing Manager at YouTube. “By collaborating with the Guggenheim and HP, it is our desire to recognize and celebrate the originality and innovation of our vast community of creators in every corner of the globe and to elevate creative video to a new art form.”

In 2009, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra gave everyone with access to the Internet a chance to play in Carnegie Hall, and in 2007, the CNN/YouTube debates gave everyone a chance to ask a question of U.S. presidential candidates. With YouTube Play, YouTube is now expanding upon the traditional curatorial process in a way that gives every video creator a shot at international artistic recognition.

“The power of YouTube and the reputation of the Guggenheim form the perfect stage for the artistic expression possible on PCs,” said Tracey Trachta, Director of Marketing Communications Initiatives, Personal Systems Group, HP. “HP is moved by the imagination of digital artists, and we want to encourage the creation, sharing and appreciation of online video as an art form.”

Upload Creative Video
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.

To help video creators generate the best possible submissions, the YouTube Play channel will post HP Make tutorials, featuring editing, sound, and other video-making techniques.

How to Participate
Participants are invited to submit new or existing videos created within the last two years to a YouTube Play channel at youtube.com/play. The maximum running time for a video is ten minutes. Each participant will be asked to provide a written statement regarding his or her work. Only one video per participant will be considered. The deadline for submission is July 31, 2010, 12:00 p.m., Pacific Time, 3:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

Selection Process
The Guggenheim will identify up to 200 videos which will be viewable on the YouTube Play channel at youtube.com/play. From the 200, up to 20 videos will be selected by a jury of experts, comprised of distinguished artists, filmmakers, designers, and musicians, to be presented at the Guggenheim Museum in New York during a special event on October 21, 2010.

Public Presentation
The creators of the jury-selected videos will be invited to participate in the October 21 event in New York, and the videos will be on view to the public from October 22 through 24 in the Tower 2 Gallery of the museum. The video presentations will also be available to a worldwide audience on the YouTube Play channel at youtube.com/play. In addition, the selected videos will be on view at the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.