Download the application housed at https://www.sugarlandfest.org/poster and complete and return with your submission.

2026 contest winner will receive a $250.00 stipend.

Applicants must submit this application with artwork by end-of-day on June 1, 2026. Applications will not be accepted without artwork.
Artwork can be submitted by emailing a high-resolution image to afta@assumptionarts.org; or by emailing to arrange local pickup or shipping.

If you must mail in your artwork, please mail to: Assumption Foundation for the Arts, PO Box 669, 410 Franklin Street, Napoleonville, LA 70390. Both addresses must be listed for shipping and receiving purposes. If mailing, artwork must be postmarked in time for AFTA to receive by June 1, 2026.

Submitting original artwork provides AFTA with more detail into the applicants' skillset and may result in a higher likelihood of scoring higher than only photographs of final pieces.

The artwork must follow these ratio and size guidelines.
18” x 24” (W x H), and the completed piece must have an aspect ratio of 3:4 (W:H) as piece will be used on printed materials such as posters, t-shirts, and other festival merchandise.
Submissions must weigh less than 40 pounds and be transportable.

The applicant must use inspiration from AFTA, the Sugarland Music & Arts Festival, and from the Assumption Parish arts community and arts culture, and the artwork must embody the spirit of the festival community in a creative or innovative way. If you are interested in submitting, but are not from the area, please contact us at afta@assumptionarts.org for a brief meeting on our organization and Assumption Parish.

The art piece must not include anything that is or could be perceived as graphic, offensive, violent, or insensitive.

All entries must be original creations in both concept and execution. The designers of artwork submitted to this contest guarantee that they are the authors of 100% of all layouts and images submitted and/or personally own all rights to all work submitted. Submissions depicting copyrighted designs, characters, or trademarked names, likenesses, or logos will not be accepted.

The use of artificial intelligence and the use of “copy and paste” or “drag and drop” image creation through online services are strictly prohibited.

Original computer-generated graphic designs can be submitted in spot color (PMS) or 4-color process and should be submitted in PNG format in the highest exported resolution possible.

Applicants under the age of 18 must have parental/guardian consent.

Contestants are limited to one entry per year.

All submissions will be evaluated by the AFTA Board of Directors and selected members of the AFTA Advisory Council in the following areas:

Overall Appearance
Compositional elements: color, balance, contrast, proportion, symmetry, etc.
Demonstrates artistic technique and skill

Thematic Content
Does applicant use inspiration from AFTA, the Sugarland Music & Arts Festival, and/or from the Assumption Parish arts community and arts culture, and does the artwork embody the spirit of the festival community in a creative or innovative way?

Creativity
Does it present the subject or theme in an original or unique way?
Is the concept or presentation creative or unique?

Reproduction & Marketability
In general, would someone want to purchase and display the original piece or a print?
Does the piece have mass appeal and lend itself to being reproduced on shirts, prints, etc.?

Applicants must include the information below in their design. The information must be legible and prominent on the poster to be considered:
"3rd Annual"
"Sugarland Music & Arts Festival"
"August 1, 2026" or other normally acceptable format of the date

AFTA and SMAF logos are NOT to be used in the submission. The winning submission will be framed and festival information will be added by AFTA.

Terms of Application
Applicant grants all reproduction and usage rights of all entries to AFTA.

AFTA may publicly reveal the identity of the winning applicant and display photographs of them and their artwork for promotional purposes.

The winner may be asked to participate in promotional activities associated with the competition and/or poster unveiling event.
All original artwork will be treated as a donation to AFTA, and all proceeds from the auction of the original artwork will go toward the foundation.

AFTA reserves the right to take additional photographs of the original artwork and reproduce the artwork in any form and fashion.

“The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible." - Toni Cade Bambara

“Do you follow me? We are the wrong people of the wrong skin on the wrong continent and what in the hell is everybody being reasonable about...” - A poem about my rights, June Jordan 

The world is on fire and our bodies are at the forefront. How do we keep our soul in America? How do we remain rooted in our aliveness while navigating grief, resistance, and survival? What rituals, memories, and acts of care are required of us to move through these times with humanity? Through our collective momentum of love and care we reimagine more liberated futures.

Curators, Gabrielle Tolliver and paris cian in partnership with the ACLU-LA are seeking artists to submit work for the Rites to Rights: How to Keep Our Soul In America publication. We are seeking 2D Artworks, Poetry, Fashion Photography, Sound Scores, Short Films, and documentation of Installation. We would like to spotlight artworks that honor the theme(s) but not limited to: Aliveness, Memory, Archives/Preservation, the Body, Seen/Unseen, Care/Love, Liberated Futures, and Ceremony, to be highlighted in conversation with ACLU-LA Justice Lab Initiative.

Selected artists will receive an honorarium for their accepted artworks.

The Covington Three Rivers Art Festival invites artists to apply to its 30th annual juried festival. The award-winning festival attracts 50,000+ visitors and is dedicated to bringing the best of fine arts and fine crafts to historic downtown Covington, Louisiana.

A $35 nonrefundable application fee is required. Artists must submit four color images of current work and one booth image. Booth fees range from $350 for a single booth to $860 for a double booth with corner or break-in-row placement. Double, corner, and break-in-row booths are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

A jury of three prominent arts representatives and one alternate selects exhibitors based on submitted images representing creativity, quality, and originality. All work exhibited must match the quality and type originally accepted by the jury. Artists must display a body of work sufficient to fill a 10'x10' booth, with at least 60% available for sale. The festival is held outdoors along Columbia Street (200-600 blocks) rain or shine, with no contingency plan. Registration and setup occur Friday, November 13 from 2-5 p.m., with setup continuing Saturday, November 14 from 6-8 a.m. Judging begins at 9 a.m. Saturday. The festival runs 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Artists must attend and staff their booths for both days. Booth space is 10'x10', and artists must provide their own display booths, tents (white only), weights, racks, tables, and chairs. Electricity and generators are not available. All artists and collaborating artists must sign a release form and present photo ID at registration. Festival Headquarters is located at 419 North New Hampshire Street.

Embracing “slow” in all registers, we invite artists whose work engages in slow states of being, slow processes, and slow media. We seek work that lingers in drifts and delays; work that dwells in states of stillness and attunement. Resisting efficiency and resolution, we seek immersion into the hum, the grain, the granular—work that cultivates attention through deceleration and degraded signals, work engaging slow, low, and no technology to open immersive states of flow.

FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY proudly hosts the 30th iteration of our annual call for artists: NO DEAD ARTISTS International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Art. The call is open through 15 JUNE 2026 and the exhibition participants are selected by an ever-changing group of three prestigious arts professionals. The exhibition is installed in the gallery 16 September and remains on view through 17 October, with an opening reception in conjunction with the Arts District New Orleans’ First Saturday Gallery Openings on 3 October 2026 from 5-8 pm.

The NO DEAD ARTISTS exhibition was founded by Jonathan Ferrara in 1995 to give a voice to emerging artists. The exhibition’s name is derived from the old adage that artists never achieve success until they are dead. NO DEAD ARTISTS turns that notion on its head and often gives emerging artists their first break in the art world. In the 90’s, the exhibition was open to New Orleans-based artists and subsequently grew to include artists of Louisiana, then becoming a national juried exhibition in 2010. In 2014, Matthew Weldon Showman opened the call internationally, expanding the opportunity to artists everywhere and producing an even more diverse and compelling survey of Contemporary Art.

Now in its monumental 30th iteration, the exhibition has been a springboard for numerous artists; leading to national press coverage, recognition, gallery representation, art fair exhibition, and acquisitions by museums and other prominent collections. Each year the gallery invites a panel of renowned arts professionals and collectors to select the newest creative talents from around the world AND as the GRAND PRIZE, one jury-winning artist is awarded a solo exhibition at FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY to take place the following year.