Maui Arts & Cultural Center announces “call to artists” for Schaefer Portrait Challenge 2025
Juried exhibition includes $25K in awards to select artists receiving dates for artist entries to take place in September and October
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The Maui News
KAHULUI--Maui Arts & Cultural Center announced the dates for application and jurying for its signature triennial exhibition – the Schaefer Portrait Challenge 2025 (SPC 2025).
Held since 2003, this marks the eighth iteration of this statewide juried exhibition, which presents the unique diversity of the people of Hawai'i through explorations in portraiture.
Exhibition dates for Schaefer Portrait Challenge will be January 14--March 22, 2025, at Maui Arts & Cultural Center's Schaefer International Gallery.
Artists interested in participating in SPC 2025 are encouraged to access the "Call to Artists" prospectus and application, which is viewable/downloadable on the MACC's website at mauiarts.org/spc2025.
The jurors for SPC 2025 will be Sonnet Coggins, Executive Director at The Merwin Conservancy, Maui; Mina Elison, Curator at Donkey Mill Art Center, Hawai'i Island; and Tom Lieber, Artist, Kaua'i.
SPC 2025
ENTRY DATES IN 2024:
MAUI Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Alexa Higashi Meeting Room One Cameron Way, Kahului Receiving: Saturday, October 12 from 9 am--12 pm Pick up: Monday, October 13 from 9 am--12 pm
Schaefer Portrait Challenge is a statewide juried exhibition that has been held triennially since 2003, encouraging Hawai'i-based artists to present the people of their island communities through explorations in portraiture. This prestigious exhibition features the carefully selected entries of artists whose work best captures Hawai'i's extraordinary portrait subjects, and carries three substantial cash prizes:
¯ The Jurors' Choice Award for $15,000, sponsored by Carolyn Schaefer, is selected by the exhibit jurors and presented at the artists' opening reception.
¯ The Gene Freedman Artists' Choice Award for $5,000 is a new addition to the exhibition, where the awardee will be selected by the vote of SPC 2025 exhibiting artists.
¯ The Ruth Freedman People's Choice Award for $5,000 will be determined by the popular vote of gallery visitors throughout the duration of the exhibition at MACC. The Artists' Choice and People's Choice awards are sponsored by the Eugene and Ruth Freedman Family Foundation and will be presented at a gallery reception on March 16, 2025.
Schaefer Portrait Challenge is open to artists 18 years of age and older who are residents of the state of Hawai'i. A broad range of interpretation and style from representational to experimental work is encouraged. Portrait subjects must be a person living in Hawai'i. Self-portraits are also accepted. All works entered must be original, one-of-a-kind, and newly created specifically for this exhibition between October 2022 and October 2024. The work may not have been previously shown in any other exhibit, gallery, venue, website, or social media network. Accepted media are drawing, painting, textile, sculpture, printmaking, and mixed media. Accepted printmaking processes include relief, intaglio, lithograph, serigraph, monotype, and chine-collé pulled from small editions only. Photography and computer-generated imagery are allowed only when used as a component in a mixed media work (two or more combined mediums) based on the acceptable media listed above. With their submissions, artists must submit a statement about themselves and their portrait subject.
The jurors for Schaefer Portrait Challenge look for portraits that communicate both visually and conceptually. Beyond technical proficiency, artists must capture the vital essence of their portrait subject through live sittings and one-on-one time spent engaging directly with the sitter. Jurying for SPC 2025 will consist of two rounds. A preliminary jurying will take place at four locations on the islands of Kaua'i, Hawai'i island, O'ahu, and Maui, where the jurors will review all submissions. Semifinalists will be selected at each location based on direct observation of the work by the jury. Final jurying will take place on Maui, based on review of digital images of the semifinalists' work from all four jury locations.
Full details on entering and artist requirements are in the exhibit prospectus and entry form available at mauiarts.org/spc2025. For questions or to request additional information, email schaefergallery@mauiarts.org.