Spring NQAF Key Art Competition

QCC is seeking visual art pieces that align with our “Pleasure in the Storm” theme for our SNQAF25 festival poster and catalog. This call is open to Bay Area visual artists of all experience levels and who work with all mediums.

The first prize will get you $500 and your art featured as the key art for the festival’s posters, flyers, and catalog. This is a great opportunity to get your art some exposure to LGBTQ+ arts audiences throughout the SF Bay area. The deadline to apply is March 10th at 11:59 pm PST

SUBMIT YOUR ART TO THE COMPETITION HERE!

The artistic theme for the 2025 Spring Queer Arts Festival (SNQAF25) is “Pleasure in the Storm,” and we are inviting pieces that embody queer approaches to sustaining ourselves and our communities through cultivating shared joy, community celebration, and loving connection. No matter how turbulent life’s storms are, we know we can create expansive artistic & cultural spaces that bring us the healing, rest, revolutions, and freedom we deserve. Together, we will create pleasure in these storms.

  • This year’s festival events each center on one or more of the following values:
    • Rest
    • Celebration
    • Resistance
    • Love
    • Connection
    • Ceremony
    • Expansiveness
    • Healing
    • Truth
    • Freedom

We seek visual art pieces that align with our “Pleasure in the Storm” theme for our SNQAF25 festival poster and catalog. This call is open to Bay Area visual artists of all experience levels. All mediums are welcome. ***AI Generated art will not be considered.***

Examples of past covers can be found here on the National Queer Arts Festival Archive Page.

How your art will be used:

  • Your art will be displayed at our festival events and on all of our SNQAF25 print and digital marketing and communications materials.
  • You will receive credit on all public-facing communications materials.

PRIZES:

  • First Place:
    • $500 cash prize, catalog and poster placement, and two comp tickets to all SNQAF25 events.
  • Second Place:
    • Honorable mention and display of your art within our catalog, promotion on our social media page, and two comp tickets to all SNQAF25 events.
  • All Applicants:
    • Could receive promotions for your piece on QCC’s social media.

COMPETITION DEADLINE: Friday 3/10/2025 at 11:59 p.m. PST

SUBMIT YOUR ART TO THE COMPETITION HERE!

Competition Selection Process:

  • Through a blind selection process, each QCC team member will vote to determine which piece best evokes the intended theme by incorporating your interpretation of the values listed above. 
  • A piece will be selected no later than April 1st. 
  • Due to limited staff capacity, we will not be providing notification to those not selected 
  • Selected contestants are asked to provide a headshot and a 1-2 sentence statement about why art is essential that may be used in QCC’s social media and marketing. 
  • If selected as our winner, we will request your payment info, formal use agreement, and headshot. For finalists, we will request a formal use agreement and headshot.
  • ***AI Generated art will not be considered.***

What is the Queer Cultural Center all about?

Queer Cultural Center promotes social justice and the artistic and financial development of queer art and culture. We steward artists whose programs nourish, connect, and mobilize trans & queer communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. QCC’s services for artists include fiscal sponsorship and hands-on training with financial literacy, fundraising, and capacity building. Since our founding in 1993, QCC has served an estimated 125,000 LGBTQIA2S+ San Franciscans and the 350,000 LGBTQIA2S+ residents of the greater regional SF Bay Area. We’ve curated 26 consecutive month-long National Queer Arts Festivals featuring work from more than 2,500 LGBTQIA2S+ artists. QCC’s artist services have supported over 50 Bay Area LGBTQIA2S+ artists and arts organizations to secure over $10 million in programmatic and general operating funds.

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