Aquarium Earth Day Art Contest

The 2022 contest is now closed. Please bookmark this page and check back next year for submission guidelines in 2023.

Managed in partnership with the Arts Council for Long Beach.

The Aquarium of the Pacific is accepting images via JPEG format to be juried for its upcoming Earth Day Celebration. The theme of your work should reflect our connection with our ocean planet and may include artwork about the ocean, marine life, or protecting the ocean and our planet.

There will be three winners selected to exhibit their artwork during the Aquarium’s Earth Day Celebration on April 23 and 24, 2022. From those, one grand prize winner will be selected. Each winner will receive $500 and his or her winning artwork will be displayed at the festival. The grand prize winner will receive an additional $250.

Please read the following guidelines carefully. Any of the guidelines not followed below may automatically disqualify you from participation in the contest.

Eligibility: The call is open to all emerging artists working in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. Entrants must be 18 years of age or older to apply. To ensure a diverse representation of artists each year, past contest winners will not be considered.

To be considered, art MUST be appropriate for a family audience.

Up to three submissions are welcome.

Submission images must meet the following specifications:

• File names are the artist’s last name followed by the entry number (i.e. Jones1.jpg).
• Image files should be in high-resolution JPEG format.
• Images should be no smaller than 1,000 pixels in any direction and 72 dpi.
• Images must be oriented properly (i.e. top of image is top of artwork).
• In your submission, you must include the medium of your artwork, its dimensions, and a brief description of the piece and its connection to the theme.

Failure to conform to these submission guidelines may result in instant disqualification. Artists submitting fewer than three artworks may use the additional entries to submit secondary images of their entered artworks, such as up-close or detail images of the submitted piece.

Artwork can include the following media:

• painting/drawing
• photography
• sculpture
• collage and mixed media
• digital art and photo composites

Media: Drawings, paintings, printmaking, digital/new media, photography, sculpture, etc., are all possibly valid. We currently cannot support video or sound-based media. Selected pieces must be ready to either display on easel or stand alone on the ground or tabletop. Artwork will not be hung on the wall. Sculptures must be displayed on a tabletop and must not have any jagged, sharp edges or points. Floor-standing sculptures must be less than 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Please note there will be no access to additional lighting.

Photo submissions that include images of people in which those people are identifiable must have the express permission from the people in the photos to be included in the festival.

If your artwork is accepted, we will require that you are available to set up your display on Saturday, April 23, at 8:00 a.m., and break down on Sunday, April 24, at 5:00 p.m. Artists will be invited to staff their exhibit area to interact with the public and sell artwork and to participate in short artist talks during the festival. The Aquarium is not liable for any damages incurred throughout install, the process of sales, and de-install. For any sales, 70 percent of net sales go to the artist and 30 percent goes to the Aquarium. More details will be provided once artists have been selected. While onsite at the Aquarium, artists will be required to follow the Aquarium’s safety protocols found on our website.

The following items are not permitted for sale or display, and therefore should not be included in submitted artwork, except as specifically approved by the Aquarium:

• Shells and other products from formerly living animals (fur, leather, feathers, coral). These items may be worn or displayed for cultural purposes only.
• Living creatures.
• Lighted candles, votives, pyrotechnics and neon glow sticks
• Balloons
• Confetti, rice, or sand
• Food items

Notification: Artists will be notified of acceptance or non-acceptance by email no later than April 8, 2022. You will be notified which piece(s) will be exhibited and receive more details on the Earth Day Celebration at the Aquarium. Please, no phone calls. If you have any questions, please e-mail Claire Atkinson at catkinson@lbaop.org.

Note: Due to the high volume of traffic to the submission form in the last hour before the deadline, those trying to submit artwork at this time may experience errors and risk disqualification. Please try to submit your artwork early in the day to avoid missing the deadline.