Art Moves 2026 Billboard Art Competition

Art Moves 2026 Billboard Art Competition is now open for entries!

Art Moves 2026 Billboard Art Competition has been recently opened for entries and like every year invites all artists interested in billboard art, especially the young ones, to prepare an artwork in response to this year’s competition theme ’Fear or courage? How can we stop fearing tomorrow and start creating it together?’

Short description

The 19th Art Moves Festival is hosting its international Art Moves 2026 Billboard Art Competition with a purpose to propagate and popularize billboard art and to encourage artists to create art engaged in the reality.

This is an international event held annually as a core part of the renowned Festival of Art on Billboards, set to take place in Toruń, Poland, in September 2026.

The purpose of the Competition is to propagate and popularize billboard art and to encourage artists to create art engaged in the reality.

Artists are invited to prepare an artwork in response to this year’s competition theme: Fear or courage? How can we stop fearing tomorrow and start creating it together? This competition slogan can be treated as a metaphor of all the processes taking place in the world today. One of the most influential emotions shaping the contemporary world is fear. It has become an essential tool of social impact, present in politics, economics, the media, and the digital space. Continuously inundated with information and visions of upcoming crises, dangers, and catastrophes, we begin to paint a gloomy picture of reality. We stop trusting ourselves and others, and feel alienated and frightened. We live under constant tension, overstimulation, and uncertainty.

Fear paralyses individuals and entire societies. It hinders decision-making and reduces a sense of agency and responsibility. Instead of growing up and deciding about our own lives, we step back into passivity and dependency, hoping someone else will decide for us. More people fear the future, relationships, and a world that is becoming unpredictable and unstable.

Are we really living in the most dangerous times? Maybe it is not the reality that is terrifying, but the story we hear about it? Maybe it is time to stop fearing, face the difficulties we encounter, and open up to others? Courage does not mean a lack of fear. It is the decision to act despite fear, the ability to think independently, take responsibility, build relationships, reach out to others, and consciously participate in this reality here and now. Without our participation, there will be no present or future where we want to live together. So, it is worth thinking about what we can choose and do to stop fearing tomorrow and start creating it together. The artists taking part in the competition are invited to prepare an artwork (of maximum three pieces) in a technique of their choice.

Incorporation of the Competition theme in the work is not required and will not have any impact on the evaluation of the work by the jury. If some other slogan or phrase is used in the work, it should be expressed in either.

The works will be evaluated by a jury panel composed of artists and curators who are recognized authorities specializing in public art.

8 most interesting works will be displayed on billboards in the city space during the Art Moves Festival in September 2026 in Torun, Poland.

Submission requirements

➜ At this point of the competition, do NOT attach files of the complete (heavy) works.

➜ You need to dens a preview of the submitted work in the following format: 30 cm x 14,6 cm (11,8 inches x 5,7 inches) in a horizontal layout, 72 dpi, jpg. The Competition organizers will contact the selected artists after the announcement of the jury’s verdict in order to receive the final works to be printed off and displayed on the billboards.

➜ The format of the final work should be 498 cm x 243 cm (196 inches x 95.7 inches) in a horizontal layout, 100 dpi, cmyk, tiff.

Eligibility

The Competition is open and all artists interested in billboard art are invited to take part, however, the Competition is particularly addressed to young artists, who are usually most eager to face new themes and untypical ways of art presentation.

Prize

The 8 most interesting works will be displayed on billboards in the city space during the Art Moves Festival in September 2025 in Torun, Poland. The best selected work will receive the Main Award in the amount of PLN 6 500 (about EUR 1.533).