Call Description

LatinXperiencia 2026: "La Resiliencia" call to Latino/a/x artists

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(Haz clic aquí para ver la traducción al español)

Resilience is a superpower! During challenging circumstances and difficult times it can give us the strength to persevere through great adversity with fortitude, and it can provide the flexibility and resourcefulness to find pathways forward with a creative mindset.

When we face disruptive, life-changing personal events such as changing jobs, becoming parents, suffering injury or illness, dealing with the end of a relationship, or experiencing the death of loved ones, we can draw on our adaptability and self-reliance as we rebuild a new sense of self, stability and purpose.

On a larger scale, the world today confronts us with a daunting barrage of deeply troubling realities: a dire shift toward authoritarianism, menacing threats to immigrants and communities of color, economic crises, war, environmental disasters — all events that can alter the course of millions of people’s lives and call for a concerted, collective effort to fight for a better world with great courage and tenacity.

And even relatively smaller stressors can be more easily overcome with a resilient constitution or attitude and the ability or determination to find a solution; think of a tree bending and not breaking in the wind, an artist overcoming a creative block, or… certainly you can imagine any number of scenarios in which resilience makes all the difference.

How do you envision resilience? We invite you to submit artworks that reflect some aspect of this potent and complex idea.

This call is open to Latino/a/x artists living in the US, working in any art media / discipline. The artwork content does not in any way have to be specific to Latino/a/x themes or culture, although it can be, of course. We welcome any and all interpretations, imagery and content that captures the idea of “resilience.”

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ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:

La Resiliencia will be presented at Cabrillo gallery as part of our annual LatinXperiencia exhibition series and in celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Our LatinXperiencia series features Latino/a/x artists speaking to a wide diversity of themes, offering a platform to foster cross-cultural connections and generate meaningful conversations within our diverse academic community and beyond.

Timeline:

• Submission Deadline: July 29, 2026, 10:59 Pacific Time, 11:59 Mountain Time
• Selected artists notified by: August 17, 2026
• Delivery of artwork: 
  • Shipped artworks must arrive at Cabrillo Gallery no later than September 16.
  • Work delivered in person will be accepted at the gallery on September 17 and 18.
• Exhibition: Selected artworks will be exhibited at Cabrillo Gallery September 28 to October 27, 2026.

3 Juror's Awards: $300, $250, $200

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ABOUT THE JUROR:

Alyssarhaye Graciano is the Visual Arts Curator at  MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana in San Jose, CA. In addition be being a community curator she is a published author and practicing textile artist. Her curatorial practice has focused on emerging and established artists of color, uplifting untold stories, and artistic expressions.

Prior to MACLA, Graciano held positions at Silicon Valley Creates and New Museum Los Gatos. An arts advocate, she volunteers on the GenArts Steering Committee, writes for Content Magazine, and is currently in the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute (MALI). Alyssarhaye is trilingual with a BA in Languages and Literature from the University of California, Riverside.

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ABOUT CABRILLO GALLERY:

Cabrillo Gallery in Aptos, California presents high quality art and design exhibitions, lectures and other programming to promote a broad range of discourse about the visual arts and culture. Our programming serves to educate and inspire our academic community at Cabrillo College, the wider community of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas, and beyond. To learn more about the gallery, visit https://www.cabrillo.edu/cabrillo-gallery/

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Application Requirements

Please be prepared to do the following before applying online:

• *** Be sure to create a CaFÉ account well ahead of the submission deadline if you do not already have one.

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• Fill out the call application on the CaFÉ website.
• Prepare and submit high quality images in jpg format or video files (see specs below) of your artworks. There is a limit of 3 artworks per artist.
  • Please note: you will need time to upload and provide information about each image or video before completing the application for this call.
  • For image file specifications go to: https://artist-help.callforentry.org/doc/media-requirements
  • For uploading instructions, go to: https://www.callforentry.org/artist-help-cafe/uploading-media/
• 3D artworks:
  • You may submit single images of a 3-D artwork or a very brief video of that artwork (30 seconds or less) to show side views.
• For uploading video artworks:
  • Maximum length of video: 3 minutes
  • File Type: MOV, MP4, WMV, 3GP, AVI, ASF, MPG, M2T, MKV, M2TS.
  • File Size: under 100 MB.
  • Resolution: minimum 640 x 480, maximum 1920 x 1080
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3 or 16:9
  • Bit Rate: recommended above 240 kbps
  • Frame rate: minimum 12 fps, recommended 30 fps
  • Or if your video is publicly available online: you can enter the URL to embed the video in your portfolio. Supported URLs: YouTube, Vimeo. Note: Ensure the linked video is set to be shared publicly. Your video will not play if it is set to private. 
• Provide the following information:
  • Title of artwork
  • Dimensions (inches) H x W x D
  • Price of artwork
  • Year completed
  • Website url, Instagram and Facebook handles, if you have them.
  • Write and submit a brief statement for each artwork submitted describing how each artwork expresses the theme of the exhibition.
• Pay entry fees of $35 per artist for up to 3 artworks, payable by PayPal or credit card.
• Please note: This is a physical exhibition; if your work is accepted, you will need to deliver or ship your work, at your own expense, to and from the gallery if selected. Artist must ship artwork with prepaid return label included in the package.

We recommend that you copy and save the Rules and Terms to Apply, below, or review them as needed for important information about your exhibition agreement with Cabrillo Gallery.

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Eligibility Criteria

• Open to all Latino/a/x US residents.
• Artwork may be in any art media/discipline.
• Entries must be original* works of art not previously shown at Cabrillo Gallery.
  • *Please note: No AI-generated images will be considered.