Call for Art: Be Part of the 2026 Art Exhibition During SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival
Your Art. Your Voice. Your Community. Deadline November 30th
Are you an artist inspired by rivers, resilience, or the power of people coming together? SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival and the Nevada County Arts Council invite you to submit your artwork for SYRCL’s 2026 Wild & Scenic Art Exhibition, during our Wild & Scenic Film Festival February 19-23.
This year’s exhibition will be taking place in two places, the Granucci Gallery at the Grass Valley Center for the Arts during fest until March 16th and, as part of the Arts in Public Spaces initiative, the Rood Center atrium from January 16 through May 1, 2026.
SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival was born out of the South Yuba River Citizens League’s fight to protect the Yuba River. The Art Exhibition continues that legacy, using creativity to inspire activism and connection. This year’s theme, Mobilize, calls on artists to explore motion, momentum, and collective energy whether through nature’s rhythms or humanity’s call to act.
This is a juried exhibition. This year’s jurors bring decades of experience and a shared passion for connecting art to the world around us:
Charlie Barboni has spent over 50 years shaping California’s fair and festival art scene, including curating Marin County’s nationally recognized Fine Art/Fine Craft Show. Since retiring in 2020, he’s juried and curated over two dozen major art events, from the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival to Paint Sausalito Plein Air.
Austin Pratt, an artist, curator, and educator, serves as Curator and Manager of Sheppard Contemporary & University Galleries at the University of Nevada, Reno. Recent exhibitions Austin has curated — Wet Incantation: Poetics of Water & Language and Toward a Tangled Turn: Knots, Nets, Threads, & Loops — explore the intersection of art, ecology, and emotion. His work has been featured in New American Paintings, and he has been a recipient of the Visual Arts Fellowship from the Nevada Arts Council.
Sara Morris, the Ruth Rippon Curator of Ceramics at the Crocker Art Museum, brings a scholar’s insight and a curator’s eye. Her research on craft and material culture, especially California’s contributions to ceramics, enriches her approach to contemporary art. She has also worked with the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, lending national scope to this year’s panel.
Art has always been a catalyst for action. Whether it’s a brushstroke, a sculpture, or a photograph, your work can help move hearts and minds toward protecting what matters most. This year’s theme, Mobilize, invites artists to explore what sets change in motion, from the currents that shape a riverbed to the collective power of a community united in purpose.
Final Deadline to submit your art is November 30th.
Submissions are accepted in three categories: 3-Dimensional, 2-Dimensional, and Photography.
Artists can submit up to 3 pieces per entry in a single category. All artwork must be for sale.
To find out more about submission guidelines, eligibility, and entry details, visit SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival website at https://wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/2026art/
Join the Movement
For over two decades, the Wild & Scenic Film Festival has inspired activism through art and storytelling. The Art Exhibition extends that mission, reminding us that creativity isn’t passive. It’s a force that moves people.
Submit your work. Share your vision. Help us mobilize a future where rivers run free, communities stay connected, and art leads the way.
Did you enjoy this post?
Get new SYRCL articles delivered to your inbox by subscribing to our ENews.
