Art of the State, open to Pennsylvania artists and craftspeople, is an annual juried exhibition held at The State Museum of Pennsylvania. With an established tradition of exhibiting highly creative art chosen by a distinguished panel of jurors, Art of the State provides an opportunity for both established and emerging Pennsylvania artists to exhibit their art and receive statewide recognition.   

Presented by The State Museum of Pennsylvania in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, the 56th Art of the State exhibition will offer cash awards for selected entries in the categories of Painting, Work on Paper, Photography & Digital Media, Sculpture and Craft.   

The fee is $30 for up to 4 works of art.   

FINAL DATE TO SUBMIT ENTRIES: Friday, May 5, 2023, 11:59 PM  

Entry assistance will be available by e-mail and phone from 8:30 AM until 4:00 PM Monday through Friday.  

The exhibition will be open from Sunday, September 10, 2023 until Sunday, January 7, 2024.  

CATEGORIES   

Craft: Functional or decorative three-dimensional craft in any synthetic or natural media.   

NOTE: Artists can only submit one image for each work. Artists with three-dimensional work may be asked to submit additional views.  

Painting: Two-dimensional painting media including oil, acrylic, watercolor, encaustic, fresco, ink & wash, pastel, gouache and spray paint, painted on a two-dimensional surface.    

Photography & Digital Media: Traditional and digital photographs, photographs printed on metal, and time-based media.  A.I.-generated art will not be accepted to the 2023 exhibition. NOTE: Artists are required to provide a media player, speakers, and screen for exhibition display purposes for digital works.  Media should be programmed to play on a continuous loop. The media player should be equipped to start automatically, and to start and play when and if power is lost and returns.    
 
Sculpture: Three-dimensional carved, molded, applied or constructed techniques using wood, glass, plaster, metal, stone, plastics, clay, soft or hard materials, found objects or natural materials. May include high and low bas relief, installations, kinetic sculpture and assemblage.   

NOTE: Artists can only submit one image for each work. Artists with three-dimensional work may be asked to submit additional views.  

Work on Paper: Two-dimensional works specifically created on paper, includes drawing, collage, etching, lithograph, woodblock, screen print, serigraph, calligraphy, computer art on paper, graphic art, digital art print, digital collage, monotype, cut paper and pastel.    

AWARDS   

A First Place Award of $500, a Second Place Award of $300 and a Third Place Award of $200 will be distributed in each of five categories.   

Additional Awards  

William D. Davis Memorial Award for Drawing: $250   

The State Museum Art Docents’ Choice Award: $300  

TIMELINE   

Friday, January 13, 2023: Entry process open  

Friday, May 5: Last day for entry (no late entries accepted)  

Week of June 19: E-mail notifications of juror results  

July 5: Deadline to confirm information  

July 15 - 23:  Art delivery  

September 10: Exhibition opening  

January 7, 2024: Exhibition closing  

January 20-28, 2024: Art Retrieval 

JURORS   

Selection Jurors will review all art submitted. Those with the highest ratings will be featured in the exhibition. Selection jurors include:    

Kyle Hackett

Artist and Assistant Professor of Painting & Drawing

James Madison University

www.kylehackettstudio.com/about-1.html   

 Kyle Hackett (b. Still Pond, MD) is an Artist and Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at James Madison University. Hackett earned his MFA from the LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art and his BFA in Fine Arts, as a McNair Scholar from the University of Delaware. His paintings explore issues of race, class, and social standing through approaches to self-representation and the constructed image. Hackett has exhibited nationally and internationally receiving numerous honors and awards. His work has been featured in publications including New American Paintings, Aesthetica Magazine, Washington Post, and The Huffington Post. Hackett’s work is represented by Goya Contemporary Gallery (Baltimore, MD) and notably collected by Ethan Cohen Gallery (New York). 

Deborah Pinter  

Artist and Adjunct Professor 

Cleveland Institute of Art 

www.deborahpinter.com/ 

Deborah Pinter has been exhibiting her work primarily throughout Northeast Ohio since graduating from New York University/International Center of Photography joint graduate program with a Masters of Art in Photography (1991). She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the Cleveland Institute of Art  (1988).  

Her work is included in numerous private and public collections including The Cleveland Museum of Art, METROHealth, Progressive Art Collection, The Cleveland State University Art Collection and the Grafikwerkstatt Collection, Dresden. Exhibition venues include solo exhibitions at The Cleveland Botanical Gardens, and the Massillon Museum and group exhibitions at Zanesville Museum of Art and The Alte Feuerwache Loschwitz, Dresden, Germany. She also self-published a book in 2012, Luminous Florals that was included in the DIY: Photographers and Books Exhibition, curated by Barbara Tannenbaum at the Cleveland Museum of Art. 

She has served as a trustee on a number of non-profit art institution committees and boards, including SPACES Gallery, Cleveland, OH and the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Friends of Photography board where she served as Vice President for three years.  She is currently serving as President of the Alumni Council at The Cleveland Institute of Art where she also teaches in the Foundations and Photography + Video Departments. 

Jennifer Zwilling 

Curator and Director of Artistic Programs 

The Clay Studio 

www.theclaystudio.org/staff-and-board/jennifer-zwilling  

Jennifer Zwilling is the Curator and Director of Artistic Programs. She joined The Clay Studio in 2015 and administers the Resident Artist Program, Exhibitions, The Collection, and the Guest Artist in Residence Program. She earned her BA in History from Ursinus College and MA in Art History from Temple University, Tyler School of Art. Previously, she was Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts and Contemporary Craft at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Jennifer developed and taught History of Modern Craft at Tyler School of Art for ten years, and has taught and lectured around the world. She represents TCS as a founding Board Member of CraftNOW Philadelphia. 

  
An awards juror will select recipients in each of the categories.  

Jeremiah William McCarthy   

Chief Curator  

Westmoreland Museum of American Art 

https://thewestmoreland.org/press-releases/jeremiah-william-mccarthy-appointed-curator-of-american-art/  

Jeremiah William McCarthy is presently chief curator at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. Previously, he was consulting curator for The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, where he co-organized Inspired Encounters: Women Artists and the Legacies of Modern Art (2022–23), the inaugural exhibition of the David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center in Tarrytown, NY. Prior to his work for The Fund, he served as curator at the National Academy of Design and associate curator at the American Federation of Arts. Major exhibitions he has organized or co-organized include For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design (2019–22), which travelled to eight museums in all five regions of the United States, and Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900 (2017–18; with Laurence Madeline and Suzanne Ramljak), which was awarded “Best Painting Show of 2018” by The Boston Globe. He also edited and contributed to both accompanying scholarly catalogues, published by Yale University Press. Previously, he has worked in the curatorial and education departments of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and he was an inaugural teaching fellow at The Frick Collection, New York. 

ABOUT US     

The State Museum of Pennsylvania is adjacent to Pennsylvania’s State Capitol building in Harrisburg. It offers exhibits and vast collections interpreting the state’s heritage, art, and natural history. The State Museum is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), the Commonwealth's official history agency.    

The Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation (PHF) supports the work of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission who collects, preserves researches, and interprets the treasures of Pennsylvania. Through private contributions, PHF helps PHMC protect and provide access to PHMC's 23 historic sites and museums, approximately 5 million objects, and 237 million archival items. Pennsylvania’s valued heritage is sustained through PHF.   

CONTACT    

Amy S. Hammond, Curator | Art of the State Project Director   
The State Museum of Pennsylvania    
300 North Street, Harrisburg, PA 17120    
Phone: 717-772-2840 Email: amhammond@pa.gov    

Application Requirements

Application Requirements: Artists must submit an artist statement and resume. 

Eligibility Criteria

 COMPETITION RULES   

Eligibility    

1. Artists must be current residents of Pennsylvania and 18+ years of age.   

a. Work must have been created within the past (3) years (January 2020- May 2023).   

b. Size is limited to 12 feet x 12 feet, 150 lbs. in all categories.  

c. The work must be of the Participant’s own original concept and execution. The work must be legally compliant with intellectual property law. If, for instance, the work contains copyrighted material, the work must be a fair use of the copyrighted material. If the work contains the copyrighted materials of others, the Participant must secure all permission prior to submission and furnish them upon request.    

d. All work must be freestanding and/or ready to hang. The reverse side of two-dimensional paintings, photographs and works on paper must have a wire or D-rings for hanging.    

e. All entry applications must be uploaded to Competition website.   

f. All entry applications must include an insurance value of each work submitted. If the work is for sale, the artist may submit a purchase price for each work. No insurance value may exceed the sale price.    

2. The State Museum reserves the right to reject any work from the competition or withdraw any award distinction.    

3. No substitutions are permitted.    

4. A panel of three selection jurors representing various media will assign numeric scores through the online entry site. The art with the highest scores will be included in the exhibition. An awards juror will review the work and make the award selections.    

5. All artists will be notified by e-mail of the judging results. Details for delivering or shipping of those works selected for the exhibit at The State Museum will be included in the notice. The artist may be responsible for installation of art if special conditions exist. The State Museum encourages the sale of exhibited work and does not take any commission. The museum collects information from interested buyers and connects the potential buyer to the artist.  Payment must be arranged between artist and buyer.  Art will not be available for pick up until the exhibition closes.   

6. Awards are selected by the Awards Juror after accepted art has been installed at The State Museum. Award recipients will be contacted prior to the awards ceremony and are asked to refrain from making their own announcements prior to the reception.   

7. Awards:  A first prize of $500, second prize of $300 and a third prize of $200 will be awarded in each of the five categories (Painting, Sculpture, Craft, Works on Paper and Photography/Digital Media). The William D. Davis Memorial Award for Drawing in the amount of $250 and the Art Docents’ Choice Award of $300 may be presented. The State Museum may select a Purchase Award by choosing a work for its permanent collection.   

8. Refunds will not be issued after the close of the submission process.