2026 Open Call for Art

Art About Agriculture Touring Exhibition 2026: Field Report

Submission Deadline: January 11, 2026 at 11:59pm

Art About Agriculture Touring Exhibition 2026: Field Report invites submissions of fine art and craft that explores visual storytelling inspired by food, fiber and natural resources. Whether rooted in personal experience, research, legacy, mythology or a fleeting moment, Pacific Northwest artists are encouraged to share their agricultural narratives. These stories can be fully communicated within the work, supported heavily by the artist statement (up to 400 words), or unfold anywhere in between. The 5-person blind jury will aspire to curate a diverse selection representing a wide range of creative mediums and agricultural topics.

Student scholarships and awards! Students enrolled at Oregon State University, Josephy Center for Arts and Culture, and Blue Mountain Community College are encouraged to submit! The jury will select up to five student artworks for inclusion in the tour. Students from the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences with chosen work will receive a $200 scholarship from the College of Agricultural Sciences’ Academic Programs Office. Other applicable students with work selected by the jury will receive a $200 honorarium from the Art About Agriculture Program to help with materials, framing and shipping expenses.

All artworks selected for the tour are eligible for purchase award consideration.

The 2026 tour is currently scheduled to visit Giustina Gallery at Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR/OSU), Josephy Center for Arts and Culture (Joseph, OR), Grants Pass Museum of Art (Grants Pass, OR), and the Betty Feves Memorial Gallery at Blue Mountain Community College (Pendleton, OR).

Joseph, OR’s unique industries and natural resources receive support from the Wallowa County Extension Office. The nearest OSU Agricultural Experiment Station is the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center – Union Station. This Experiment Station is focused on forage crops, alternative livestock systems, environmentally compatible livestock systems, and restoration of wildland systems.

Grants Pass, OR’s Josephine County Extension is currently without a local public office, although nearby is OSU’s busy Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center (SOREC) in Central Point, OR. SOREC hosts renown research into viticulture, plant pathology, and entomology. 

Blue Mountain Community College shares their campus with the Umatilla County Extension Office. Pendleton, OR is home to OSU’s Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center , which supports Oregon’s 2 million acres of wheat and rotational crops. 

To help inspire, we have included links below to recent OSU stories.  Many more OSU College of Agricultural Sciences-related articles can found at The Source.  The diverse areas of research within the College of Agricultural Sciences are available here: agsci.oregonstate.edu/home/research. Agriculture requires a holistic understanding and the College of Agricultural Sciences leads the nation in programs in fisheries, wildlife, and range management. The college is also internationally known for work in the sustainability of managed landscapes, natural resources, and the world’s oceans.

As a world-class leader in agricultural, environmental, and life sciences at Oregon’s Land Grant, Sea Grant, Space Grant, and Sun Grant institution, the College of Agricultural Sciences encourages diverse points of view and invests in visual arts as an important part of its mission.

As the founding College of the state’s land grant university, it is dedicated to serving all Oregonians. As champions of science, the College of Agricultural Sciences embraces differences to find common ground and create opportunity – committed each day to make tomorrow better.

Eligibility:
This regional, juried competition is open to artists living in Alaska, British Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Student program eligibility is restricted to Oregon State University, Josephy Center for Arts and Culture, and Blue Mountain Community College students enrolled in classes between September 24, 2025 and March 20,2026.

Conditions:
All submissions must relate thematically to agriculture and natural resources. All fine arts and crafts media are eligible for consideration. All approaches welcome.

Blind Jury Process:
The jurying process consists of two stages. In the first stage, jurors review art submissions digitally with artist names removed to ensure equal opportunity based on the quality of the work submitted. In the second stage, the jury selects 45-60 pieces for inclusion in the tour.

Purchase Awards:

Following the blind jury process, jurors will then learn the names of artists and nominate purchase awards from the pool of touring artworks for acquisition into the Art About Agriculture Permanent Collection.  Unless listed as “Not for Sale,” all artworks selected by the jury for inclusion in the tour, professional or student, are eligible for purchase award consideration.

Beyond those artists selected by the jurors, the Directing Curator of Art About Agriculture may invite one or more additional artists to participate in the 2026 Tour.

Art About Agriculture reserves the right to refuse artwork that does not meet the competition standards, or artwork that is beyond the scope or specification of the competition.

Entry Guidelines:

Ideal-logic Submission Portal

Submissions:

• May submit up to five artworks.
• 1-2 sentence description for each piece is encouraged but not required.
• Title image files as follows: Last_First-shortened title-0x0x0in.jpg.
• For 3D artworks, up to three additional images showing different views can be included. Use A, B, C indicators in the image title (e.g., Last_First-shortened title-0x0x0in_A.jpg).
• Although the Ideal-Logic submission portal accepts images of any size, it's recommended to use images sized 2000px or larger in the longest dimension. Jpg files are preferred.

Promotional Use:

Photos and promotional materials of jury-selected artwork provided by the artist can be used to promote the artwork, exhibitions, or venues. This includes use in online galleries hosted on OSU websites and websites associated with tour venues. Photos of artwork used in promotions will acknowledge the artist.