OVERVIEW
Carbondale Arts is seeking artists, designers, and community-lovers who are interested in creating a proposed design for this year’s Mountain Fair shirt/poster. This decades-long established, free community festival attracts close to 20,000 visitors and the design lives on well beyond the weekend. Sales from the merchandise at Mountain Fair directly support Carbondale Arts programming year-round.
For many years, Carbondale Arts has held a Mountain Fair poster design contest, where community members submit poster design entries. In an effort to foster a more equitable, fair, and ethical creative process for artists, we are now seeking artist applications. The selection process will take place in two separate rounds.
Learn more below.
CALL FOR ARTIST APPLICATIONS
Eligibility: Artists, designers, and community-lovers are welcome to apply
Deadline: March 2, 2026
Artist Award: $150-$1,500
SELECTION PROCESS
ROUND ONE:
Fill out this application (due March 2) where you will be asked to share a short statement of interest (no more than 200 words). All applicants will be asked to upload 4 work samples max. These may include previous Mountain Fair design entries as well as any finished artwork so we can become familiar with your style of a completed project.
Some criteria to keep in mind when applying:
• Preference/priority given to RFV-based artists and those with historical/current connections to the Carbondale Mountain Fair
• Absolutely no AI generated works will be considered
• Artists who have won in the past may enter the contest again after 5 years have passed (ie: if you won in 2021, you can enter again in 2026).
ROUND TWO:
After receiving all entries, a small committee (composed of Carbondale Arts and Mountain Fair employees, board members, directing team, and supervisors) will review and then select up to 10 artists to proceed to Round Two. Each of these artists will receive a $150 stipend to develop a single design based on the year’s theme (theme TBA, designs will be due April 15).
FINALIST:
One artist will ultimately be chosen to work directly with the Carbondale Arts team to make final edits and prepare the artwork for the Mountain Fair poster and shirt design. The winning artist will receive a check for $1,500, a Mountain Fair T-Shirt Booth merchandise allowance of $150, and a backstage pass for you and friend for a day!
TENTATIVE TIMELINE
2/5 Call For Artist Applications
3/2 Round 1 Applications Due
3/9 Applications reviewed by Design Committee
3/13 Artist Notifications
4/15 Round 2 Design Proposals from 10 selected artists due
4/20 Proposal Selection
4/25 Artist Notifications
5/4 Final Design Delivered to Carbondale Arts Team