The Salina Art Center has issued a call for entries for the 2026 Mountain Plains Contemporary Art Biennial, a juried exhibition open to visual artists from ten U.S. states: Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Submissions must be made via CaFÉ by January 20, 2026, with a $35 entry fee for up to three artworks completed in 2024 or 2025. The exhibition encourages themes of identity, place, belonging, and transformation ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary. Awards totaling up to $5,000 will be given, including a $2,250 first prize, and the juror is Hesse McGraw.
This call for submissions matters because it provides a platform for contemporary artists from a broad, often underrepresented region of the United States to gain visibility and compete for significant prize money. The biennial format and thematic focus on national identity and transformation also position the exhibition as a timely cultural reflection leading up to the U.S. semiquincentennial. For the local art community, it reinforces the Salina Art Center's role as a regional hub for contemporary art.