The Assumption Foundation for the Arts (AFTA) is actively calling for artists to submit their interest and relevant portfolio works in consideration for designing the logo for the annual Sugarland Music & Arts Festival (SMAF). SMAF is an indoor/outdoor music and arts festival held each year in Napoleonville, Louisiana on the first weekend in August with two stages of continuous live music, an arts and artisans market, a family/kids area, and delicious food and beverages from 10:00 am until Midnight. 2026 will be year three and we are need of professional logo design and branding as we grow and expand. A stipend of $500 will be awarded to the artist chosen to design our logo along with lifetime free entry and VIP status for the artist and a guest to SMAF and recognition at each annual festival. Please submit your interest at https://www.sugarlandfest.org/logo by February 28, 2026 for consideration. Cheers, Joshua Hebert President and Founder Assumption Foundation for the Arts afta@assumptionarts.org (985) 209-1110 assumptionarts.org sugarlandfest.org

We invite artists working in all media—visual, literary, and live performance—to submit work for a juried exhibition, Side By Side, Piece by Peace, as part of the project Refuge: The Courage to Witness, initiated by Hagit Barkai, Associate Professor of Art at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette in collaboration with NUNU Art and Culture Collective. Refuge is an act of resistance, a catalyst for peace, and a space for collective healing. As artists, we find refuge first and foremost in our studios and our creative practice, a space for creative transformation and the focus of our human practices through sharing images, storytelling, ceremonies, music, shared rituals and shared food. This exhibition explores the psychological, cultural, and political mechanisms that hinder the acknowledgement of war and suffering—within ourselves, within our communities, and in the world—and the mechanisms, practices, experiences, and ideas that cultivate personal and collective courage to face the reality of each other and the possibility of peace and healing. We seek art that illuminates the obstacles obscuring the realities of conflict and the possibilities for healing, revealing how peace is lost and how it can be regained. We invite artwork that addresses any of the many forms of hiding that mask suffering and distance us from one another, examining what causes us to hide from each other, within each other, from ourselves, and from our shared humanity, as well as what brings us back into connection, truth, and clarity, including art that investigates shifting perspectives and the act of holding conflicting experiences. Submissions may address any part of the full spectrum of peace and conflict—from private struggles that disrupt our peace of mind to the broader forces that fracture peace in our communities and across the world. Works may engage with any of the mechanisms of trauma, fear, pain, hurt, greed, comfort, isolation, or the inability to choose or act, and may consider moments when bodies are treated as foreign, when the self becomes estranged, or when belonging is denied. We welcome art that exposes what is hidden, confronts what is avoided, and imagines pathways toward healing and reconnection. Artists are invited to explore one or more themes such as coexistence, juxtaposition, perspective shifts, embracing contradictions, holding contrasts, and navigating gray areas. The works weave together conflicting elements, span divides, and move between opposites, embodying the light that emerges from brokenness. The co-created space will honor the act of sharing reflections on the human experience in all its complexity as a form of resistance, connection, and collective healing. Refuge: The Courage to Witness is supported by the Acadiana Center for the Arts ArtSpark Grant, funded by the Lafayette Economic Development Authority and the National Endowment of the Arts. FREE ENTRY

Professional Development and Artistic Planning Grants are available to support the professional development needs of Southern presenters, programmers, or curators, for strengthening program design or increasing organizational capacity. South Arts strongly believes professional development for presenters/programmers/curators is integral to success, including traveling to see new works and attending convenings. This grant program is open to film, visual arts, performing arts, traditional arts, literary arts, and multidisciplinary organizations. This funding can support staff’s travel expenses to conferences, festivals, exhibitions, workshops, and other professional development opportunities. Funding also supports guest artists’ or guest curators’ travel expenses for onsite planning meetings with presenting organizations. These grants support travel expenses (for example, lodging and air/ground transportation), admission/registration fees, and other related expenses. In addition, these grants support expenses for virtual professional development opportunities and staff training (for example, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility training or technology training for virtual engagements). South Arts is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. We have prioritized this commitment to ensure that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) led organizations, LGBTQIA+ led organizations, and organizations led by people with disabilities are represented as both applicants and grantees. In addition, we encourage applications for projects that engage BIPOC artists, LGBTQIA+ artists, and artists with disabilities.

South Arts believes that rural communities deserve great art, and can require specialized support to make that vision viable. Distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis, Express Grants support rural organizations and communities with expedited grants of up to $3,000. To be eligible for funding, applicants must program arts experiences featuring a Southern artist. Express Grants are an opportunity for organizations in South Arts' nine-state region to receive fee support to present Southern guest film directors, visual and performing artists, or writers from inside or outside of the presenter's state. Artist fee support is awarded for: film (documentary, fiction, experimental, and animation), performing arts (theater, music, opera, musical theater, and dance), literary arts (fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry), traditional arts, and visual arts (crafts, drawing, experimental, painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media). Projects must include both a public presentation (film screening, performance, reading, or exhibition) and an educational/community engagement component. Based on the artist fee, the maximum request is $3,000. The grant requires a dollar-for-dollar cash match (for example, an applicant that requests $3,000 must provide a $3,000 cash match for a project with a $6,000 artist fee). South Arts is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. We have prioritized this commitment to ensure that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) led organizations, LGBTQIA+ led organizations, and organizations representing persons with disabilities are represented as both applicants and grantees. In addition, we encourage applications for projects that engage BIPOC artists, LGBTQIA+ artists, and artists with disabilities.

The WORTHLESSTUDIOS Photographer In Residence (PIR) program is a unique 1-month-long photography residency taking place inside an Airstream trailer converted into a Darkroom. PIR gives analog photographers and photography-based artists exclusive access to the Airstream darkroom to process film and make new work. Due to the mobile nature of the Airstream, artists in residence gain direct access to a community or place they wish to document, maximizing their use of the darkroom and creating a body of work that is site-specific. RESIDENTS GET Exclusive access to Airstream darkroom for 4 weeks $1,500 artist stipend Darkroom chemistry, film, and photo paper The option to host a public program 2 free workshops on scanning and digital printing by Brooklyn PrintWorks Press packet materials In 2026, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS will mainly offer residencies in the five boroughs of NYC, in partnership with local sites and arts organizations such as Alice Austen House, Inspiration Point, The Green-Wood Cemetery, and NYC Parks. Visit our Photographer in Residence page on the WORTHLESSSTUDIOS website for more information.

Texas Photographic Society is proud to present #NewVisions2026, our annual online, open-themed collegiate student photo competition. The exhibition will be juried by Paho Mann, Associate Professor of Photography at the College of Visual Arts and Design, University of North Texas, and a photographer with work in the collections of the Tucson Museum of Art, the Museum at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland, Kansas, and the City of Phoenix Public Art Program.