Igniting Ideas: Emerging Artists

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2025/2026 Student Art Exhibition Application

Application period October 1, 2025 – March 30, 2026

PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR 2025/2026 STUDENT ART EXHIBITION APPLICATION!

Overview Juror's Pick Selection Process Delivery of Art Framing Guide

Overview

Ignite Arts & STEM (IAS) is pleased to present the 4th cohort of our Igniting Ideas: Emerging Artists | Student Art Exhibition — a fully juried exhibition exclusively open to students who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color).

This year's exhibition will be held on Saturday, April 18, 2026 from 12:00 PM – 3:30 PM at Good Mother Gallery in West Adams, Los Angeles — a nationally recognized contemporary art space and proud member of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) and the Gallery Association Los Angeles (GALA).

This is not a school showcase. This is a professional gallery experience. Selected students will have their work displayed on the same walls that regularly feature emerging local and international artists. For many participants, this will be their first professional exhibition — and we take that seriously.

This is a competitive, juried exhibition. Submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by a panel of jurors. Not all submissions will be accepted.

Accepted mediums for two-dimensional artwork are as follows:

Paintings: oil, acrylics, watercolor, etc.
Drawings: colored pencil, pencil, ink, marker, pastels, charcoal (it is recommended that charcoal and pastel drawings be fixed)
Collages: must be two-dimensional
Prints: lithographs, silkscreen, block prints
Mixed Media: use of more than two mediums such as pencil, ink, watercolor, etc.
Computer-generated art
Photographs
Other similar two-dimensional pieces

Teachers and/or students should verify their eligibility before submitting their application. Artwork must be the creation of a single student. Students may not collaborate on an entry.

⚠️ Important Note About Your Email Address

When completing your application, please do not use your school district email address as your primary email address. School districts restrict outside communications with student email accounts, which means our emails — including your submission confirmation, acceptance notification, and all other program communications — will be blocked and will never reach you.

Use a personal email address (Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, etc.) as your primary contact. If you only have a school email address, enter it in the Alternate Email field and provide a personal email as your primary. Missing critical communications due to an unreachable email address is not grounds for an appeal or extension, and may result in your removal from the program.

The information requested on the application should be provided as thoroughly as possible. Students should include contact information that will be valid through June 2026.

⚠️ IMPORTANT — ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Participation in the Igniting Ideas: Emerging Artists exhibition requires the selected student artist to be present at the exhibition in person on Saturday, April 18, 2026 from 12:00 PM – 3:30 PM. Attendance is not optional. The core purpose of this program is to give student artists the experience of their first professional gallery exhibition — and that experience requires being in the room. Students who are unable to commit to attending in person should not submit an application. Selected artists who do not attend the exhibition will be removed from the program and their artwork will not be displayed.

Juror's Pick

This is a fully juried exhibition. A panel of independent jurors will evaluate all submissions based on creativity, originality, technical execution, and artistic merit. Jurors will make their selections without knowledge of the submitting artist's name, school, or background — the process is blind by design. Not all submissions will be selected.

IAS invites artists working in all mediums and styles listed in the Overview to submit their work. Selected works will be displayed at the 2026 Igniting Ideas: Emerging Artists | Student Art Exhibition on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at Good Mother Gallery, 5103 W. Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90016, and featured online on the IAS website.

Awards & Recognition: Jurors will select winning entries and honorable mentions. Selected artists who attend the exhibition will receive gifts. The top award recipients will receive Dick Blick Art Supplies Gift Cards.

⚠️ Selected artists must be present at the exhibition to receive any awards, gifts, or prizes. Awards, gifts, and prizes will not be held, mailed, or transferred to any representative, teacher, parent, or guardian on the artist's behalf. No exceptions.

Art Sales

Selected artists will have the opportunity to offer their artwork for sale during the exhibition. Participation in art sales is completely optional — your artwork does not have to be for sale. If you choose to make your work available for purchase, you will be asked to confirm your intent and set your asking price after you receive your acceptance notification.

IAS will provide suggested pricing guidelines to help you price your work competitively and fairly for a first-time exhibition. You are not required to follow these guidelines — the price of your work is your decision — but we are here to help if you need it.

100% of all art sale proceeds go directly to you, the artist. IAS absorbs all transaction fees so that every dollar a buyer pays goes into your hands. Proceeds are distributed to selected artists within 2–3 weeks following the exhibition via a personalized Visa gift card.

Art available for sale will be clearly labeled at the exhibition. Payment is collected at the registration table. Sold artwork is released to the buyer at the conclusion of the exhibition — not before — so your work remains on display for the full event.

Each entry must be original in concept, design, and execution and may not violate U.S. copyright laws. Any entry copied from an existing photo or image created by someone other than the student is a violation of exhibition rules and will be disqualified. Work entered must be in the original medium — scanned reproductions of paintings, drawings, or other works will not be accepted.

Selection Process

The selection process is blind. Jurors will evaluate submitted works without knowledge of the artist's identity, school, or background. Selections will be made based solely on the quality and merit of the work.

Not all submissions will be accepted into the exhibition. IAS reserves the right to limit the number of accepted works based on exhibition capacity and the overall quality of submissions received.

Once selections have been made, selected finalists and their teachers will receive an email from IAS containing a Release Form, a list of selected works, and next steps. The Release Form contains a legal release and a certification that the artwork is original in design and execution. The student, an art teacher, and a parent or guardian must sign where appropriate.

Selected artists' names and images will be posted on the IAS website. The selected artwork will hang at Good Mother Gallery for the duration of the exhibition.

Students should only submit artwork they will not need for other purposes during the exhibition period.

IAS is not responsible for connecting selected artists with jurors. IAS reserves the right not to use a particular selected image for promotional purposes if deemed inappropriate for use on IAS's social media, newsletter, website, or any other marketing material.

Please do not watermark your images when submitting your application. Submitting a watermarked image will result in automatic disqualification.

Delivery of Art

Each framed artwork cannot be smaller than 8" x 10" or larger than 28" x 40". The minimum and maximum dimensions include the frame. If your artwork is selected for the exhibition, it must be delivered framed and must still measure within the above dimensions when framed. No framed piece should weigh more than 15 pounds. Framed works that do not meet size and weight requirements will not be accepted.

All works accepted for exhibition must be presentation-ready and labeled on the back of the frame with your name, image title, and contact information (email and phone). Please deliver your work with protective wrapping.

Delivery Options:

In-Person Delivery
- Drop-Off: Artists will deliver their work to designated drop-off locations (exact locations and times will be communicated in the acceptance notification). A signed Release Form must be securely attached to the back of the artwork. Entries without signed Release Forms may not be accepted.
- Pick-Up: Selected artists are expected to take their artwork home at the conclusion of the exhibition on April 18, 2026. Early pick-up is not available. Artists must be present to retrieve their own work. Artwork will not be released to a representative, teacher, parent, or guardian on the artist's behalf.
Round-Trip Shipping: Artists who are unable to deliver in person may choose to ship their artwork to IAS using a prepaid shipping label. A prepaid return shipping label must be included for the artwork's safe return after the event. IAS takes no responsibility for damage during shipping. We recommend insuring your work during shipment.

⚠️ Unclaimed Artwork: Any artwork not retrieved by the artist at the conclusion of the exhibition, and for which no shipping return arrangement has been made in advance, may be offered for sale through an online auction or donated to a local arts organization, with proceeds benefiting future Ignite Arts & STEM programs. Artists will be notified in advance.

Framing Guide

Framing requirements apply only to the artwork selected by the jurists. All artwork should be presented in a simple, professional manner. Consider yourself a professional and treat your artwork with respect. Always use the best materials.

The finished presentation – front, back, top and bottom - is part of the whole work. It should appear to be new and well crafted, not battered and shop worn or flimsy or fragile.

Poor presentation can make great art look terrible. Good presentation can make terrible art look great.

All work must be presented ready-to-hang. If you choose you can attach a wire to the frame between one-third and one-quarter of the way down the sides of the piece. Stainless steel braided picture wire works best for smooth hanging and deters rusting.
Do not use sawtooth hangers. They are not strong enough to support the weight of a frame safely.
Frame molding varies greatly in style and quality. Avoid over powering the art with brighter, bolder, or busier framing materials that distract from it visually and look amateurish, cheap, or out-of-place.
While grand masterpieces are well suited to hand-carved gold frames; most other pieces look best in modest real wood or metal frame moldings with clean lines and black, neutral, or natural wood finishes.
Do not use "snap on" frames, corner-clips with glass or “easel” frames designed for tabletop use.
Photographs and all two-dimensional work on paper should be matted with neutral tones (white, gray or black only) and covered with clean, scratch-free glass or Plexiglas.
Matting serves to separate the art from the glazing, but it also isolates it for viewing. The artwork should stand alone without being enhanced or abated by the mat and frame.
Mat size should be appropriate to the piece. A wide mat is better; it expands the work and makes it appear larger. Narrow boarders visually reduce the artwork and look cheap. A three to four-inch mat with an extra half-inch on the bottom gives a nice visual feel to a finished piece. But, do not use extra wide mats just to make a piece fit in a standard size frame.
Float-mounting the artwork over the mat, so that the edges are seen, is an option when an artwork has a deckle edge or is constructed with handmade paper. A spacer within the frame should be used to keep the art from touching the glazing.
A stretched canvas requires no glazing because the canvas needs to breathe. The frame may be backed with a dust cover and/or moisture barrier, but this must be perforated to allow air to circulate.
Large oils or acrylics on heavy-duty stretchers with a gallery wrap do not need to be framed. The canvas should be stapled on the back and the edge should be painted.