Key dates for 2026
Date
| Activity |
22 April - 21 August
| Visual Art Awards submissions open |
| 28 March – 13 September | 2026 Central exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art celebrating the 2025 Excellence Award winners |
| 15 July - 11 September | Visual Art In Residence submissions open |
September - November
| Regional exhibitions held across Queensland |
24 - 26 November
| In Residence 3-day residency held in Brisbane
|
How to enter
Submissions for the 2026 Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art are open from 22 April to 21 August 2026.
We are using a new submission system for 2026, so all submitting teachers will need to create an account.
For detailed information on
using the portal please review our
How-to
guide.pdf (PDF, 1.2MB).
Schools also must download and read the
2026 Submission Guidelines.pdf carefully before submitting into the awards. The booklet contains information on all elements of the program and what is expected of schools and students.
Before finalising the submission, the submitting teacher will be asked to tick a box acknowledging their understanding and acceptance of the program's terms and conditions.
Project consent form
All students participating in the awards program are required to complete a 2026 Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art
Project Consent Form.pdf
Schools will be required to upload completed forms via the submission portal. Submissions cannot be completed without this.
Ministerial consent form
All students participating in the awards program are encouraged to complete a 2026
Ministerial Consent Form.pdf
Submit
Once the submitting teacher, student and their parent/guardian have read the Submission guidelines and have received the student's completed project consent form/s, visit the submission portal to submit into the awards.
Submission guidelines
- All Queensland state and non-state schools offering senior visual art can submit up to 4 students' artworks—including Year 11 and 12 students studying visual arts through Visual Arts in Practice, Certificate III (Visual Art) and International Baccalaureate (with visual arts as a study area).
- The visual art head of department and principal of the school where the student is enrolled must endorse the artwork as appropriate and ensure that it is compliant with the eligibility and submission requirements.
- Only 1 work per student may be submitted and up to 4 entries per school.
- To support the judging process and online gallery, clear digital images are required for each submission or 1 screenshot for video works. We recommend supplying more than 1 image to assist the judging process.
- The size of the submitted artwork must not exceed 1.8m x 2m x 2m once installed.
- If the artwork has individual components, parts should not exceed 20kg.
- Video works should not exceed 4 minutes duration.
- Each submission must be accompanied by a supporting artist statement of no longer than 150 words. The artist statement must be written by the student, be grammatically correct and approved by the teacher submitting the artwork. We recommend also supplying process documentation to support the judging process.
- A consent form signed by a parent/guardian must accompany the submission or the artwork cannot be exhibited.
- Any work the department deems to be inappropriate for public viewing will not be accepted and the program manager will contact the school to discuss any concerns.
- Students must have the permission of the copyright owner of any work that has been reproduced in their artwork before it will be included in exhibitions. If permission has not been obtained, the work cannot be exhibited and the program manager will contact the school to discuss the concerns.
- All accepted artworks are invited to exhibit at their corresponding regional exhibition. Schools should liaise with the respective regional coordinator for more information. Artworks may be required to adapt their display to suit the venue and exhibition needs.
Judging process
A selection panel will shortlist up to 150 works from the total submissions. From the shortlist, up to 40 excellence winners will be selected, and 1 student from each region will receive a regional encouragement award. Awards are announced at the regional exhibition presentation events.
Visual Art In Residence Nominations
Nominations for the Year 10 Visual Art In Residence 2026 open in July 2026. For more information on how to enter, visit the In Residence page.