2023 Taos is Art Banner Competition

The Town of Taos and Taos Arts Council are seeking Taos County artists' artwork for a lamppost banner campaign to highlight Taos as an arts destination, celebrate the community's diversity and creativity, and beautify the historic district. Banners will be displayed within the Town of Taos from approximately late spring through early fall. The competition welcomes diverse and inclusive images representing any artistic discipline or media that can be photographed and displayed visually on a banner, including painting, pottery, sculpture, printmaking, photography, projection and installation, glass, jewelry, metalwork, fiber art, performing arts such as dance, theatre, and music, and non-traditional media.

Entrants must be at least 18 years old and currently living and working within Taos County. Work must have been produced within the last 5 years and cannot be a duplicate of a winning entry from a prior Banner competition. Each individual or artist representative may enter one piece with one image; groups may enter one collectively created piece under one collective name. The entry fee is $22, which includes a $20 fee to offset banner project expenses and a $2 addition to fund replacement banners. Selected artists will be featured on either one of forty-one 30" x 60" lamppost banners or one of twenty-five 18" x 30" lamppost banners (printed front and back) in locations chosen by the Town along Paseo del Pueblo Sur and Norte, Kit Carson Road, Bent Street, and within the historic district. Winners will receive their banners to keep once the campaign ends.

Submissions will be judged by blind jury selection based on aesthetic impact, diversity of medium and artist background, suitability for the medium, appropriateness for public display, and legibility for drive-by viewers and pedestrians. Applicants must submit one JPG/JPEG image under 5mb through the CaFE website. Selected applicants will need to submit a second high-resolution image (PSD, TIFF, JPG, or PNG format, at least 200 dpi) to the Taos Arts Council for printing. Image dimensions for large banners should be 30"w x 49"h; for small banners, 18"w x 23"h. Images should be bold, bright, legible, with good sharpness and contrast, avoiding busy images that would not be legible from a distance. Winners will be notified approximately 1-3 days after the blind jury selection process, which takes place within 3-5 days of the submission deadline.