Unique by Nature Juried Art Competition Spring 2026
McKinney juried art competition with $6,000 purchase prize and additional cash awards. Two categories for professional and emerging artists.
Unique by Nature is a juried art competition and exhibition hosted by the McKinney Performing Arts Center and the City of McKinney, Texas. This prestigious competition is designed to support and recognize both professional and emerging artists while building the public art collection for the McKinney Performing Arts Center.
The competition features two distinct categories: Category A - Large Works Purchase Prize Competition, offering a $6,000 award for a work that will join the permanent public art collection of the McKinney Performing Arts Center, and Category B - Non-Purchase Prize Competition and Juried Exhibition, with cash awards of $500 each distributed from submission fees as the prize pool.
All submissions will be juried and judged by Emily Budd, Assistant Professor of Art at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Budd is a highly acclaimed artist with a background in paleontology who founded Aluminati, an expanding social form project that demonstrates the transformative power of foundry craft.
Eligibility Requirements: Open to professional and emerging artists who are legal residents of the United States and have been residents of Texas at some point in time or currently reside there. Entrants must be at least 17 years of age by May 2026.
The Awards Reception and Exhibition will be held on Saturday, April 18, 2026, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at City Hall, 401 E. Virginia St., McKinney. The exhibition will be on display April 18 through May 14, 2026, on the 1st and 2nd floors of City Hall. Artists can retrieve their work May 18-20, 2026, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in the City Hall Lobby.
For complete submission requirements, guidelines, and specifications, artists must download the prospectus available at www.artsandmusicguild.org/ubn-competition.