ECOTONES: Water & Thresholds of Change

Ecotones: Thresholds of Water & Change invites artists working in all media to engage with water as both subject and metaphor. Water shapes landscapes, carries stories, and defines the spaces in between. The exhibit explores marginal spaces where water and transformation meet—ecotones are permeable boundaries rich with diversity, tension, and transformation, hosting species, forms, and processes from both systems. Metaphorically, they reflect threshold moments of transition, uncertainty, and becoming, where ideas, systems, and environments intersect, overlap, and evolve.

Artists are encouraged to explore the power, fragility, and movement of water, as well as its capacity to sustain life in the face of scarcity, human pressures, and change. Work may treat water as a mirror, a memory, a pulse, a keeper of stories, or a force of change. Artists are invited to explore ecological, cultural, and metaphorical possibilities—especially in the spaces where one realm meets another, and where the edge becomes a threshold. Threshold moments are times of rupture and revelation where currents shift, systems pivot, and the familiar gives way to the unknown.

Submission Deadline: March 15, 2026. Entry fee: $35. Artists may submit up to 3 artworks with 2-6 total samples (1-3 images, 0-3 videos). 2-D work maximum dimensions: 96" H × 48" W, must be ready to hang with D-rings and wire or French cleats (no sawtooth hangers). 3-D work maximum dimensions: 36" H × 18" W × 18", must be ready for display. Multiple-piece sets must include a setup diagram. Artist statement required (maximum 250 words), specific to this exhibition describing how work engages the theme. Image requirements: minimum 1200 pixels on longest side, under 5MB, JPG/JPEG format, 300 DPI ideal. Video files in MP4 format. Exhibition runs April 30 – June 6, 2026. Artist notification: April 3, 2026. Shipped work due: April 24, 2026. Opening reception: April 30, 2026. Artwork pickup: June 8. Awards: Best of Show $250, three Honorable Mentions $50 each, announced at opening reception. Two scholarships covering the entry fee are available for emerging artists; apply by January 15, 2026. Open to all women-identifying artists.