Thank you for your interest in the West Seattle Garden Tour Art Competition. We welcome your submissions for our 2025 event and look forward to seeing your art!
Each year West Seattle Garden Tour, a 501(c)(3) organization, seeks out other nonprofits whose goals fit our mission—to promote horticulture, education, and artistic endeavors within West Seattle and neighboring communities. Your submissions and the winning art, along with the generous support of our sponsors, allow the West Seattle Garden Tour to fund projects in our community that align with our mission. Our 2024 tour raised and distributed $57,700 for 11 local nonprofits.
Submissions should be reflective of this narrative with a focus on use of color, composition, texture and contrast to excite interest in the tour.
Gardens are personal statements that reflect the passions and creativity of their gardeners. They may be places of refuge and retreat or active environments that invite engagement. The gardens featured in our tour exhibit those qualities as well as an artful mix of design, rich color palettes, texture, contrast, creative and inspiring use of plants, art, and hardscaping.
TERMS & CONDITIONS
Prize: $750.00 cash will be awarded to the artist for the winning submission. Winning artwork will be the featured artwork for WSGT’s 2025 promotional bookmarks, posters (11” x 17”) and ticket book cover (5.5” x 8.5”). Winning art and honorable mention artworks will be shown during the West Seattle Art Walk at Capers Home in the West Seattle Junction on May 8, 2025 and West Seattle Nursery during the month of June 2025.
Eligibility: All artists who are residents of Washington State are eligible to enter the competition, except active WSGT committee members or their immediate family members.
Theme: Gardens are personal statements that reflect the passions and creativity of their gardeners. They may be places of refuge and retreat or active environments that invite engagement. The gardens featured in our tour exhibit those qualities as well as an artful mix of design, rich color palettes, texture, contrast, creative and inspiring use of plants, art, and hardscaping. Submissions should be reflective of this narrative with a focus on use of color, composition, texture and contrast to excite interest in the tour.
Specifications: Original, two-dimensional artwork submission(s) may be created in any fine arts medium (painting, drawing, collage, art quilts, photography, etc.). The submitted artwork must have been completed within the last five years and not previously published or reproduced in any manner prior to submission or previously entered into this competition. The artwork may be portrait or landscape orientation; minimum size 11” x 14” inches. Two works of art may be submitted. Clip art, subject matter copied from magazines, and other copyrighted images will not be accepted.
Criteria: Artwork will be evaluated for creativity, style, composition, technique and skill. Reproducibility and broad appeal will also be considerations.
Entry: For the first round, digital files of the artwork will be reviewed by the WSGT art competition sub-committee. All work must be well-photographed or scanned. Work not suitably photographed or scanned will not be considered. The first round will end with a selection of finalists. Finalists will be requested to submit original artwork for judging in the final round. All original artwork will be returned to artists, (or held by WSGT with artists’ permission until the May/June Art Walks) with the exception of winning artwork, which becomes property of WSGT.
Jury: Finalist entries will be evaluated by a panel of active members of WSGT.
