Tides of Tomorrow 2026-2027

Theme

Water is changing Virginia in ways that are now felt at the scale of daily life. Higher tides, recurrent flooding, and saltwater intrusion are reshaping shorelines, neighborhoods, and daily life across the Commonwealth.

Tides of Tomorrow invites high school artists across Virginia to enter this landscape with seriousness, creativity, and care. Through visual artwork, students are asked to explore the nature of sea level rise and flooding as the lived realities of their world. Participants are encouraged to capture how humans influence the land, how the land is changing in response, and the resilience of life on the edge of a rising sea. By translating these urgent issues into art, we inspire awareness, spark dialogue, and envision a future where both nature and humanity thrive in harmony.

Guidelines

Artists may submit up to three total pieces in the following independently judged categories (entries can be in the same or different category):

• 3-Dimensional Artwork
• 2-Dimensional Artwork
• Photography

Media accepted for the given categories may include: sculptures and glasswork (3-D Artwork); drawings, paintings, textiles, printmaking, etc. (2-D Artwork); film, camera, or drone images (Photography).

Artists who wish to feature their work in the physical exhibition must supply their own printed piece. A given student is only eligible to win first place in up to one category.

All artwork submitted must be the original work of the student submitting it. The use of generative AI to produce artwork for this contest is prohibited.

The strongest submissions will show a sharpened way of seeing: attention to the marks water leaves on a place, the pressures it places on community life, and the unexpected forms of endurance that gather in response. What matters here is not only artistic skill, but the ability to make a viewer feel that a real world is being observed, remembered, and reimagined.