Anna’s Garden: A New Generation of Women Artists

American Women Artists’ twelfth museum exhibition in its 25 in 25 campaign will present approximately 50–65 two- and three-dimensional works at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, May 8–July 25, 2027. The juried exhibition celebrates women working in traditional fine-art materials, including drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, and sculpture. Eligible artists must be current AWA members. Awards include a $10,000 Grand Prize Cash Award and approximately $20,000 in other cash and merchandise awards. Works need not be for sale; artists receive a share of any sales.

Eligibility: Women at least 18 years old working in the fine arts and residing in the United States or Canada. Applicants and finalists must be current American Women Artists members in good standing by the December 10, 2026 submission deadline, and membership must remain valid throughout the exhibition. New members must join separately and also apply through ShowSubmit and pay the entry fee. Missing current membership by the deadline disqualifies the entry.

Entries: Applications run October 10–December 10, 2026. Submit no more than six works; at most one work per accepted artist will be exhibited. All subjects and styles, traditional through contemporary, are eligible in drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, and sculpture. Original 2D works must have been completed within the last two years; 3D works within the last five years. Works previously accepted for an AWA national juried museum competition or online juried show are ineligible. Maximum 2D size is 30 inches on the longest side, unframed. Sculpture must not exceed 6 feet high including its base or pedestal, or 200 pounds.

Materials: Sculpture may use cast or fabricated metal, stone, glass, wood, and fired permanent media such as terra cotta, stoneware, porcelain, and earthenware. Painting may use oil, acrylic, water media, pastel, egg tempera, encaustic, and eligible mixed media. Drawing may use conte crayon, colored pencil, graphite, pen and ink, scratchboard, and charcoal. Printmaking must use an original hand-drawn or painted matrix to produce hand-pulled prints in a limited, signed edition on paper, board, wood, or canvas. Mixed media may contain only permitted materials. Jewelry, fiber, fabric, photography, video, and digital, AI, or machine-generated elements are prohibited, including machine-printed photographs, giclees, or newspaper used as layers or substrates. Digital resizing of sculpture is permitted only when every aspect is the artist’s original creation.

Originality: Work must be created by the artist without supervision, not in a class or workshop, and without AI assistance. Artists must develop or select their own references; AI- or instructor-provided references, photographs, still-life setups, and model setups are ineligible. Work cannot copy other artists, AI, or published materials. Even legally usable references do not waive the requirement that composition, lighting, color, materials, and other artistic choices be the artist’s own. Artwork must be originally drawn, not applied over a printed or photographic image. Artists must own full copyright and retain copyright to their images. Submission grants AWA and the Museum permission to use work images for advertising and noncommercial promotion of the exhibition and AWA.

Application images: Complete the entire entry form and give dimensions to the nearest inch. Submit correctly oriented, artwork-only JPEG images without frames, matting, or background distractions, at least 1920 pixels on the longest edge and no larger than 30 MB, using RGB/sRGB color. PNG and TIFF are not accepted. Multiple views of 3D work are encouraged, not required. ShowSubmit handles resizing and renaming; small images cannot be enlarged to meet requirements. The exhibition-specific rules prohibit application changes after submission, although the platform’s additional information says editing and image substitution are available until the deadline; confirm this discrepancy with the organizer. Incomplete entries are disqualified.

Fees and awards: All member levels pay $60 for up to two entries, plus $10 for each additional entry, up to six total. Pay jury fees through ShowSubmit by credit card when applying; membership and entry fees are nonrefundable. Every accepted artist must additionally contribute $100 toward exhibition catalogue production and receives three printed copies. Awards include a $10,000 Grand Prize Cash Award and approximately $20,000 in other cash and merchandise awards; the awards section states total awards of at least $30,000.

Exhibition and sales: Selected artists are notified December 17, 2026. Accepted works must remain exhibited May 8–July 25, 2027, including pre-sold works, and cannot appear concurrently in an online exhibition. Works need not be for sale; sold works may be entered as NFS. Listed prices cannot change after entry and must follow the artist’s current pricing structure, including shipping to the buyer; continental US buyers will not be billed shipping. For 2D sales, the artist receives 55%, the Museum 35%, and AWA 10%; for 3D sales, the artist receives 60%, the Museum 35%, and AWA 5%. The Museum processes sales and sales tax and pays artists by the 10th of the following month. Artists must provide an IRS W-9 before funds are released.

Delivery and return: Accepted paintings and drawings must be framed and wired. Sculpture must be ready to place with stands and title plates securely fastened; stone sculpture may travel without its base only with clear, simple, labeled assembly instructions and all installation materials. Deliver shipped or hand-delivered work to Coastal Transfer and Storage, 3295 South Frazier St., Georgetown, SC 29440, arriving April 16–23, 2027. List the artist as receiver and use coastaltransfer@gmail.com and 843-240-1466 as receiver contact details. Artists pay shipping expenses and supply prepaid FedEx or UPS return labels. In-person pickup is August 3–6, 2027; artists arranging carrier pickup must schedule it August 3–13, 2027. There is no Museum shipping/handling fee. Artists must supply updated labels for sold work going to buyers. Museum personnel condition-report and install the works.

Liability: Artists insure full value in transit. The Museum insures work while exhibited for the amount stated in the application; any insurance payment for loss or damage is the artist’s sole recovery from the Museum or AWA. AWA and the Museum may reject noncompliant, damaged, or offensive work, including accepted pieces, and return work failing exhibition standards at the artist’s expense. Eligibility violations may also lead to exclusion from future AWA exhibitions.