{"id":2572,"date":"2025-12-19T14:45:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T19:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sw.edu\/news\/?p=2572"},"modified":"2026-02-05T09:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:09:34","slug":"2026-art-poetry-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sw.edu\/news\/2025\/12\/19\/2026-art-poetry-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Applications for the 2026 Visual Art Luminary and Poet Laureate Competition now open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Virginia&#8217;s Community Colleges are inviting students to enter the 2025-2026 Visual Art Luminary and Poet Laureate Competition. &#8220;I Dream&#8221; is the theme for 2025-2026 competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The competitions provide students with the opportunity to express themselves creatively, verbally, and visually. Each college will select its own poet laureate and visual art luminary. College winners will advance to the state competition, scheduled for March at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both the Visual Art Luminary award and the Poet Laureate competition are open to all students who are in the service region of Southwest Virginia Community College (Russell, Tazewell, Buchanan and Dickenson counties). To be eligible for advancement for the state competition, students must be enrolled at least part-time in adult education, dual enrollment\/early college, workforce credential, certificate, or degree programs at a participating Virginia Community College in Summer 2025, Fall 2025, and\/or Spring 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Applicants may submit materials only to the college within their region as they may receive college and service region invitations. Dual enrollment or early college students under age 18 must be able to secure parental permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ACCEPTED WORKS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Visual Arts:<\/strong> The competition is open to the following types of work: drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics. We are unable to accept works of video, film, performance art, jewelry, or craft. Artworks created using artificial intelligence (AI-ART) are not eligible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Poet Laureate:<\/strong> The competition is open to poems and prose poems. Works created with the assistance of artificial intelligence are not eligible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8220;I Dream&#8221;-inspired work should be created in 2025-early 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Submissions should not be sexually explicit, violent, or racist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Dates<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>February 14<\/strong>: Applications due for local competition \u2013 online<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>February 15<\/strong>: Artworks and poems due to SWCC<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>March 1<\/strong>: Winners due to State Competition \u2013 online application<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Wednesday, March 4, 12pm<\/strong>: Award and Recognition ceremony for local winners, KCC Gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>March 1-April 1<\/strong>: Artworks on show in KCC Art Gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>March 27, 2026<\/strong>: Poet Laureates and Visual Art Luminaries arrive in Roanoke for private interviews with judges, stage time, and professional development sessions. Interview times will be available no later than February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>March 28, 2026<\/strong>: Poet laureate performance event, which is free and open to the public. Exhibit of available visual art are unveiled. Public gets to vote on a People&#8217;s Choice Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Applications:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dual Enrollment and SWCC students&#8217; application<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/email.vccs.edu\/visualartpoetlaureate\/application?authuser=0\">Visual Art Luminary &amp; Poet Laureate &#8211; Application<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>High School students\u2019 application<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSfwOYjyXXabR33lqQbFlQvNSJ8mc7UEsNcl4ta1qWh-Tlgd4A\/viewform\">Visual Art Luminary &amp; Poet Laureate &#8211; High School Application<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virginia&#8217;s Community Colleges are inviting students to enter the 2025-2026 Visual Art Luminary and Poet Laureate Competition. &#8220;I Dream&#8221; is the theme for 2025-2026 competitions. The competitions provide students with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":2573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,44],"class_list":["post-2572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arts","tag-poetry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.11 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Applications for the 2026 Visual Art Luminary and Poet Laureate Competition now open - Southwest Virginia Community College News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sw.edu\/news\/2025\/12\/19\/2026-art-poetry-competition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Applications for the 2026 Visual Art Luminary and Poet Laureate Competition now open\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Virginia&#8217;s Community Colleges are inviting students to enter the 2025-2026 Visual Art Luminary and Poet Laureate Competition. &#8220;I Dream&#8221; is the theme for 2025-2026 competitions. 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