The Ithaca Festival is excited to announce a call for art submissions for our 2026 festival theme, Downtown Disco. We invite artists of all ages who live in or work in Tompkins County to apply. The selected artwork will be used to brand the 2026 festival and will appear on t-shirts, digital platforms, and print materials.

Submissions will be evaluated based on originality and how the theme, Downtown Disco, is captured visually. 

Submission Deadline: February 20th, 2026

The selected artist will receive a $500 award in recognition of their work.

How to Submit: Please fill out the artist application form (linked below) and send your artwork as a jpeg (high resolution images, 600-800 pixels) to ithacafestival@ithacafestival.org or provide a link to a shared drive in your email. Also include a short bio and an artist statement regarding how your art relates to the 2026 Ithaca Festival theme, Downtown Disco.

We recognize that there are a variety of AI programs available to assist artists. However, we believe that AI programs are not a replacement for human creativity and expressive ingenuity. In our commitment to fostering human creativity, we prefer that artists refrain from using AI when developing their submission. Artists utilizing AI tools in the creation of their submissions are required to provide clear and visible credit to the AI tool(s) employed in their artwork. Additionally, artists must include a brief explanation in your artist statement detailing the specific ways in which AI technology was utilized in the creative process. 

Questions? Please contact ithacafestival@ithacafestival.org.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!