Brought To You By Alexandria Museum of Art
The Alexandria Museum of Art is pleased to announce the call for entries for its 38th September Competition is officially open. Artists working in a variety of media are encouraged to apply.
About the September Competition
The 38th Annual September Competition at the Art Museum of Alexandria (AMoA) is a prestigious juried exhibition that showcases contemporary art practices across various media. Selected by a guest juror, the exhibition features works created in the last two years by outstanding artists in their respective fields. Each year, the guest juror not only curates the exhibition but also identifies three winners and three honorable mentions, which will be announced at the exhibition opening. For more details on the awards, please refer to the call for submissions.
This year’s guest juror, Erika Mei Chua Holum, serves as the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Associate Curator at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. Holum is known for her innovative projects, including Makeshift Memorials, Small Revolutions in collaboration with KADIST San Francisco (2024), and solo exhibitions featuring artists Cian Dayrit (2024), Saif Azzuz (2025), and Ja’Tovia Gary (2026). Holum is also organizing Ecofictions and Understories (2023-24), a curatorial program exploring artistic practices focused on gathering, resistance, and regeneration, in conjunction with the Climate Migration exhibition at the Houston Climate Museum, supported by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. In 2024, she launched the Sahara Dust Season, an artist collective centered on knowledge-sharing influenced by Saharan dust clouds. Holum has contributed to global projects and exhibitions, including Majority Rule: Myth-making and survival strategies from AAPI artists at Sanman Studios (2023) and makibaka! Fifty Years of Filipino-American Youth Activism at Alief Art House (2021). She holds an MA in Museum and Exhibition Studies and a Master’s in Library and Information Science, and is currently completing a PhD in Art History at Rice University.
Additionally, the museum’s Collections Committee will select one work to be added to the museum’s collection. This year, a piece by local artist Laura Gates has been chosen.
Featured Artwork
Leaving the Refuge on a Winter Evening, oil on canvas, 2024
by Laura Gates
Gates’s paintings delve into landscape and place, capturing the essence of the original inspiration that drives her curiosity. Working both in the studio and en plein air, she interprets the specific context of each location. Gates employs a variety of tools, including knives, to manipulate the paint, resulting in a freer and more abstract quality in her work. Regarding this particular painting, Gates shares: “There is a national wildlife refuge in the Mississippi Delta where people hunt waterfowl, deer, small game, and other species in the winter. A remarkable experience occurs when you exit the refuge, quietly easing along the levee and watching evening transform into night.”
Important Dates
Call for Entries: December 1, 2024 to April 15, 2025
Exhibition Dates: July 8, 2025 to October 4, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, July 11, 2025, at 6:00 p.m.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/38thcompetition
Contact
Alexandria Museum of Art
Dana Lyles
Director of Operations and Outreach
dana@themuseum.org
318-443-3458
