Juried Exhibition: What is America?

Description

View and download the Exhibition Prospectus HERE!

The online entry form will be live on our website from October 1 – 15. Entry forms should be filled out and submitted online prior to the receiving dates of October 18 and 19, 2026, both from Noon – 4pm; blank forms will also be available in-person on these dates.

Any questions may be directed to MMoA Director of Exhibitions, Amelia Onorato: aonorato@mysticmuseumofart.org or 860.536.7601 x 212

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EXHIBITION PROMPT:

This year marks the 250^th anniversary of the United States of America. In recognition of this milestone, Mystic Museum of Art (MMoA) is spending 2026 exploring just a small fraction of our nation’s storied and complicated legacies and current reality.  All year, visitors have taken part in this journey through our exhibitions, from the emergence and evolution of American landscape painting in Coast to Coast: Views of America by Mystic Artists and the upcoming Investing in Artists: Mystic and the WPA, featuring the work of early and founding members of the Mystic art colony, to their modern-day successors in the Members & Elected Artists Exhibition, to our youngest generations in the One World Project: Waters of the World and the annual Young Artists Showcase. We’ve looked at the critique and celebration of American pop culture in American Branding: Pop Art by Margaret vonKleist Emond, and the enduring significance of local textile practices and industries across time and distance in Luxe CT: Velvet Mills to Modern Runways. Inspired by these artists, the historic events that they lived through, and ones we are currently experiencing, MMoA culminates this semiquincentennial year in a juried exhibition: WHAT IS AMERICA?

The American experiment with liberty and self-governance is ongoing: the more perfect union described in the Preamble to the United States Constitution remains an imperfect one. Founded on stolen land as a free country for religion, thought, and speech, this nation has attempted for centuries to eradicate the culture and existence of indigenous populations, subjugated enslaved peoples, and continues to reckon with the legacy and reality of segregation. Yet the United States continues to be touted as a land of opportunity, drawing millions of immigrants from around the world seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Almost all of us are the product of immigration, whether our ancestors arrived on these shores under forced migration or of their own volition.

This fall 2026, artists are invited to explore their perspectives and responses about the American experiment in their art. From aspirations of being a shining city on a hill and welcoming the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free championed by Emma Lazarus on the Statue of Liberty, to reckoning with our complex history and current enforcement of foreign and domestic policies, this call to artists is open to myriad interpretations of what “What is America?” means to you. All media is welcome, including photography. No AI-generated artwork will be accepted.

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This year’s juror is Francis Estrada, the Assistant Director of Learning and Engagement at the New Britain Museum of American Art.

As both an educator and visual artist, Francis enjoys teaching about the amalgamation of art and culture through objects. He has a fine arts degree in painting, drawing, and printmaking from San Jose State University in California. His artwork focuses on culture, history, and perception. He has given extensive presentations and workshops nationally and internationally in cultural and educational institutions such as the Newark Museum, the Neuberger Museum, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Biblioteca Museo Víctor Balaguer, Pintô Art Museum, Queens Public Library, Princeton University, Weill Cornell University, University of Michigan, and the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. He has juried several art exhibitions including Scholastic Student Awards, Gallery on the Green, Art League of New Britain, Gallery 66, and is currently a juror for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ International Art Contest for Minority Artists. Francis exhibits nationally and internationally, and has over twenty publications and reviews, as well as several artist residencies and awards.