You know video matters, but it just feels like too much. Whether you need promotional videos for grant applications, show juries, booking agencies or festival committees, it can seem overwhelming. This workshop shows you a simple three-step way to create short promotional videos that help people notice your work, understand what you do, and take the next step, whether that’s buying your art or signing up for a class.

This event covers:

• A 3-step structure that makes videos clear and effective
• What to say (so you don’t freeze or ramble)
• How to film with simple tools you already have
• How to use these videos to promote your art, classes, or events

Event details
Thursday, September 24th
6:00 - 8:00 PM
Zoom

Fees or awards
No registration fee

Waterworks Visual Arts Center is a nationally accredited, non-collecting art museum presenting three rotating exhibitions of contemporary fine art and craft each year by local, regional, national, and international artists. Submissions from established and emerging artists with credentials are accepted and reviewed within 60–90 days following the deadlines of January 30 and September 30. Exhibitions are planned 18–24 months in advance, and submission review does not ensure inclusion.

Location
Salisbury, NC

Fees or awards
Submission Fee: $10

Calling all sculpture artists! Sculpture on the Town is an annual public art contest featuring large-scale, outdoor sculptures around town in Morganton, NC.

This project aims to increase community interest for public art and to offer artists a unique opportunity to showcase their original sculptural works. Artwork shall be uplifting and creative. Other aspects to consider might be: how the art visually engages and creates a sense of discovery, surprise, boldness or intimacy; how it uses kinetic devices, dynamic shapes or colors; how it celebrates movement or whimsy; how the art celebrates Morganton.

Location
Morganton, NC

Fees or awards
$3,000 honorarium awarded to artists. There are no fees for submittal.

Traditional arts endure because skilled artists choose to carry knowledge forward and share it with others. The Emerging Traditional Artists Program (ETAP) supports artists who are deepening their practice while carrying cultural knowledge forward for the next generation. Awardees receive a $5,000 award, along with professional development opportunities, peer networking, and mentorship designed to strengthen both their artistic practice and long-term impact.

The program serves eligible artists living in Appalachian Regional Commission and Delta Regional Authority communities, as well as members of state or federally recognized Native American tribes.

Fees or awards
Selected ETAP artists will receive $5,000 awards (with limited restrictions) to support learning opportunities including training, networking, and promotion.

The rich traditions of Central Appalachia are sustained not only by artists and tradition keepers, but by the organizations that create space for those traditions to thrive. In These Mountains Infrastructure Grants support nonprofit organizations preserving handcrafts, foodways, music, and other traditional arts across the region. Through $30,000 awards, the program strengthens the operational foundation these organizations depend on, supporting essential expenses that build long-term sustainability and community impact.

Fees or awards
Non-match grants are awarded in the amount of $30,000.

Womansong of Asheville has announced a new songwriting contest, “Songs of Joy, Justice, and Community” to commemorate 40 years of singing together in Asheville.

The winning original song will be performed by Womansong, Asheville’s premiere social justice-oriented, treble-voice, community chorus. “Our goal is to support songwriters in our region, as well as to increase the repertoire of choral music that speaks to our mission of ‘singing together for joy, social justice, and community,’” said Allison Thorp, Artistic Director.

The contest will award the winner a stipend of $1,000 and the opportunity to perform a choral arrangement of the song with Womansong at their May 2027 concerts.

Location
Asheville, NC

Fees or awards
No fee to enter; $1,000 prize

Now in its third year, the Publisher Work Grant program offers funding to independent presses with a history of artists’ book publishing, acknowledging awardees’ accomplishments in past work and providing the capacity-building funds to enable future book projects and publisher sustainability. In 2026, three unrestricted grants of $10,000 USD will be awarded to three independent artists’ book publishers.

Applications will be reviewed by Printed Matter and a guest jury, taking into account past work and contributions of the imprint, the strength of upcoming projects outlined, and the potential impact of the award.

Fees or awards
No application fee

VAE invites artist groups to submit proposals for exhibitions to be held in the Birdland gallery space. We are seeking groups of 2–4 artists for a 6-week exhibition run, offering an opportunity to present cohesive, ambitious, or experimental work in a professional gallery setting. This opportunity is for creatives looking for the opportunity to build their skills in installation, curation, and exhibition management.

*Note* Because of the scarcity of gallery space in the area, we will not be doing solo shows in order to give more artists opportunities to exhibit.

Gallery Space: Birdland, 706 Mountford Ave., Raleigh, NC

Fees or awards
$250 stipend

Established to recognise and encourage creative writing and art and provide a platform for publication, the Anthology Creative Awards are open to original and previously unpublished written and visual work. There are eight competitions to enter: Short Story, Poetry, Flash Fiction, Personal Memoir, Nature Writing, Travel Writing, Photography, and Cover Art.

Individual competition info, entry requirements and prizes can be found on our website.

Fees or awards
€300-€1000 for winning entries and publication in Anthology Magazine. Fees differ by competition, €12-18.

Bridge is currently seeking submissions for its V26 N1 Journal and Bridge Magazine. We welcome submissions in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, visual art, cultural criticism, design, and hybrid work from established as well as emerging writers and artists. We are especially interested in work that embraces the world and continues, however subtly, the ongoing global conversation about culture and society that Bridge has championed from its beginning in 1999.

Location
Chicago, IL

Fees or awards
$5 to $25 submission fee