2026 Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize

Create Baltimore is proud to announce the 21st edition of the Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize. The $30,000 prize will be awarded to a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Baltimore region. Though a multi-tiered approach to reviewing applications, jurors will identify a creative whose work is in conversation with contemporary art nationally & internationally, is an original vision, and is on the cusp of making a leap in their work that this award would support.

Approximately five finalists will be selected for the final review for the prize; their work will be exhibited in the Walters Art Museum June to September 2026. All Sondheim Prize Finalists will be awarded a Finalist Award of $3,000 each, and each semifinalist will receive an exhibition at The Peale Museum at Artscape 2026.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Image Submission Guidelines

• Artists may submit five (5) images of artwork for the first round of jury review.
• Images should be in jpeg format and be not larger than 3MB.

Video Submission

• Artists submitting time-based works may submit up to ten (10) minutes of work. The 10 minutes may include excerpts from up to five (5) works as long as the combined time totals no more than 10 minutes.
• Videos should be in .mov or .mp4 format.

Image & Video Submission

• Artists wishing to submit still and time-based works, subtract two (2) minutes from the allowed 10-minute time-based total for every still image submitted.

The application deadline is 11:59 PM on January 5, 2026. 

Please contact Lou Joseph at ljoseph@promotionandarts.org with questions regarding the submission of sound-based works.

GUIDELINES

1. Artists living and working in Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties and the city of Alexandria in Virginia; Delaware and Adams, Chester, Franklin, Lancaster, and York counties in Pennsylvania are eligible to submit for this award.
2. Artists may not be full-time students at the time of the exhibition and during the granting period. Students who will have graduated by the time of the exhibition and granting period may apply.
3. Artists must live and work in one of the geographic areas listed above during time of application and during the entire granting period.
4. Artists who work in collaboration may apply as a group. Each artist’s name and contact information should be listed on the application form. A one-page resume for the collaborative group and a single set of support materials should be submitted. Each individual member of the collaborative group must meet all other guidelines.
5. Artists who apply as individuals must submit original artwork that is principally created by them. It is understood that sometimes individual artists may employ the work of another artist to complete a larger scale project. For example, an artist who works in video may choose to include sound in the video that is composed by another artist. In such cases, the individual artist applying to the Sondheim Prize must be the primary creator of the work, they must disclose any assistance received on artwork submitted for consideration and they must obtain permission from the contributor to submit the work for consideration. Failure to disclose this support will disqualify application, and the artist will be required to return any prize monies awarded.
6. Upon Eventeny’s receipt of application materials, artists will be sent an automatic email confirmation. If an artist does not receive this confirmation within 48 hours, please contact Lou Joseph at ljoseph@promotionandarts.org.
7. The award will be paid in monthly installments: $8,000 will be paid for the first month and $2,000 will be paid for each of the following 11 months. If artist collaborators are selected the above payments will be equally divided between the collaborating artists.
8. Winners of the Sondheim Prize will be responsible for paying all applicable federal, state, and local taxes.
   Artists’ work included in the Semifinalist Exhibition will be insured during the exhibition duration by Create Baltimore; artists’ work included in the Finalists exhibition at the Walters Art Museum will be insured by that organization while the artwork is on the premises of the Walters Art Museum.
9. Winners of the Sondheim Art Prize will be required to file a final report by June 30, 2027. This report should include an explanation of how winning this prize has enabled the artist or artist collaborative group to further develop their work, as well as an explanation of any additional opportunities that may have arisen as a result of winning this prize.
10. Create Baltimore reserves the right to reproduce images of applicants’ work for printed or internet publicity, catalogue, or marketing purposes. The Walters Art Museum also will have the right to reproduce work relating to the 2026 Sondheim Art Prize.
11. The decisions of the jurors are final. Jurors may change without notification.
12. Finalists will be required to meet with Walters Art Museum curators to finalize their installation needs; these needs must meet the exhibition guidelines set forth by the Walters Art Museum. If required by the installation of the artwork or its intended interaction with the public, the Walters Art Museum may choose to issue waivers of liability to be signed by the artist. Otherwise, the Walters Art Museum will insure the artwork while in its possession.
13. Artists chosen as finalists will be required to take primary responsibility for installing and deinstalling their work at the Walters Art Museum. Artists must be present on the Walters Art Museum premises for the installation and deinstallation of their work, which will occur Monday through Friday, between the hours of 9am and 4pm. If artists cannot personally be present for installation, their work will not be exhibited. While artists may bring assistants to help them with installation, they cannot serve as substitutes for the artists.
14. Artists chosen as finalists must provide a complete list of materials used in artworks at the time of the initial site visit by Walters Art Museum curators and staff. Artists’ materials will be reviewed by the Walters Art Museum’s Conservation Department. Artists will additionally accommodate requests by Conservation team members to inspect work in person.
15. Any material (including but not limited to salvaged lumber, food stuffs, other unstable organic materials, objects that off-gas fumes, and objects stored outdoors) that may introduce insects or present a risk to the Museum’s environment and collection will not be permitted inside of the Museum. It is the responsibility of each artist to suggest alternative works suitable for exhibition to the Walters Art Museum curators. If no acceptable alternatives are identified, the artist’s work will not be included in the exhibition but may be represented by photographic or video documentation to be provided by the artist.
16. Finalists are strongly encouraged to attend the press preview for the Finalist exhibition, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, July 23, 2026, at 10:00 a.m.
17. Finalists may be required to make presentations at the Walters Art Museum at some time during the duration of the exhibition, including during the awards ceremony.
18. Photography by the public will be allowed in the Finalist Exhibition at the Walters Art Museum and in the Semifinalist Exhibition.
19. Previous winners of the Sondheim Prize are not eligible to apply. Previous finalists and semifinalists may apply.
20. Create Baltimore board members, employees and/or relatives (defined as children, spouse, domestic partner, or parents) are not eligible to apply for the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize.

ESTIMATED TIMELINE

• Application open: November 17, 2025
• Application deadline: January 5, 2026
• Announcement of semifinalists: mid-February 2026
• Announcement of finalists: mid-March 2026
• Finalist studio visits with Walters exhibition team: April 2026
• Finalist exhibition installation: June 15-19, 2026 (Wed-Fri, 9am-4pm)
• Finalist exhibition Press Preview: Tuesday, June 23, 2026 6pm
• Finalist exhibition duration: June 25 – September 13, 2026
• Finalist interviews: TBD July 2026
• Finalist exhibition deinstallation: September 14-15, 2026
• Award announcement: TBD, at 7pm, galleries open at 6pm

REVIEW PROCESS

The selection process will occur in three phases:

First Review — Jurors will review applicants’ submissions independent of each other. They will complete score sheets that will be tabulated to select approximately 15-20 semifinalists. Submissions will consist of five (5) digital images of work or up to ten (10) minutes of time-based work and a resume.

Second Review — Semifinalists will be asked to submit an expanded submission including up to 30 images or time-based works along with an artist statement, resume and image description list. The jurors will convene to choose five finalists for the exhibition and final review. 

Artists not selected for the final review will be invited to exhibit works in a group exhibition to be held at The Peale in downtown Baltimore, May 21 to June 7 as part of Artscape 2026. Work will be selected by a curator designated by Create Baltimore.

Final Review — The finalists will have their work exhibited in the Walters Art Museum. Each finalist will meet with the Walters Art Museum curators to determine installation requirements. 

Finalists will work collaboratively with the WAM curators to determine which artwork is to be included in the finalist exhibition; however, the final decision on what is allowed to be exhibited and decisions regarding the feasibility of installation requirements is the responsibility of the WAM curators. The exhibit design and artwork placement within these galleries is at the sole discretion of the WAM curatorial and exhibition staff.

In July 2026 the jurors will meet with each artist for up to 45 minutes in their exhibition space for a final interview. After all the interviews, the jurors will meet and decide the recipient(s) for the Sondheim Art Prize. The award will be announced at the award ceremony and reception at the Walters Art Museum on a date to be announced later.

2026 JURORS

Lauren Haynes is a curator and arts worker based in New York City. For two decades, Haynes has worked to build a more inclusive future for contemporary art through a curatorial practice rooted in community engagement and equity. Her work spans exhibitions, public programs, residencies, and outdoor installations that amplify the voices of Black artists and others often overlooked by mainstream institutions. She found her path to curatorial work through a college work study job at Oberlin’s Allen Memorial Art Museum. That formative experience, along with nearly a decade at the Studio Museum in Harlem shaped her commitment to representation at every level of the art world. Recent projects include Rest/Play (Governors Island, 2025); Jordan Casteel: field of view (Hill Art Foundation, 2024) and Lyle Ashton Harris: Our first and last love (Queens Museum, 2024). Haynes serves on the board of the Association of Art Museum Curators and AAMC Foundation and on the visiting committee for the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College. Haynes was a 2018 Center for Curatorial Leadership fellow and a recipient of a 2020 ArtTable New Leadership Award. 

Jinny Khanduja is the executive director of the Cue Art Foundation in New York. Jinny Khanduja is a cultural producer, facilitator, writer, editor, administrator, and curatorial caretaker of artists’ work and ideas. She has worked across nonprofit and arts sectors for over 15 years, holding a wide range of roles that bridge programs, development, communications, and leadership. Her practice is grounded in a commitment to new forms of organizational stewardship—ones that challenge conventional models and bring programmatic and operational work into closer alignment. She is especially passionate about creating intentional spaces that can support artists conceptually and materially, while also questioning the systems they operate within. She values depth over scale, and believes in the lasting impact of focused, relational work.

Shellyne Rodriguez is an artist, educator, writer, and community organizer based in the Bronx. Her practice utilizes text, drawing, painting, collage and sculpture to depict spaces and subjects engaged in strategies of survival against erasure and subjugation. She earned her MFA from Hunter College in 2014, and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2011. Shellyne has shown work at PPOW Gallery, Smack Mellon, MoCada Museum, the Cue Art Foundation and El Museo Del Barrio, and has had residencies at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and the Latinx Project.

For more information, contact Lou Joseph at ljoseph@promotionandarts.org