AIS offers four annual exhibition opportunities!  

Each exhibition has different elements including size, schedule, shipping, awards and events.   For your reference, here are our typical requirements for artwork to be considered for jurying in a show.  Each exhibition requires members to pay the entry fee.  Your AIS membership must be current to enter the AIS exhibitions. 

Size maximum not including frame:

Small Works: 12 x 16 overall size maximum 192 sq. inches. 

National: 24 x 36 maximum with overall size maximum is 900 sq. inches. 

Minimum size is usually 5 x 7 or 35 square inches not including frame. 

Online Exhibitions:  All sizes accepted, work does not have to be for sale and up to five images may be entered. 

Shipping Requirements for in gallery exhibitions: As noted in AIS prospectuses beginning in 2024, artists are required to ship artwork in a commercial strong box brands such as StrongBox™ by Airfloat, Masterpak, Uline, or a FedEx Premium Art Box. NO OTHER BOXES WILL BE ACCEPTED.  The gallery will refuse delivery of your artwork if not in approved shipping container.  Watch this video to understand why the approved shipping boxes are necessary.  

No wooden crates are acceptable.  Hand delivered work does not require an artbox but no extra packing materials including packing peanuts are allowed for hand delivered. Return shipping labels are required.  

MEDIUM:  Oil, Pastel, Soft Pastel, Acrylic, Watercolor, Casein, Egg Tempera Oil Sticks, and Gouache. No mixed media, colored pencils, photography, digital or any other media. No digitally manipulated work, painted giclee prints or any other type of reproductions, no manipulated or painted over photos. No work that has been created with AI (artificial intelligence).

WORK REQUIREMENTS: Work must be original in concept and execution, impressionistic in style, and must have been completed within the last three years.  Work done in ANY class and/or under the guidance of an instructor, even if the instructor did not work on the piece, is not eligible for entry.

Work painted from reference photos must be created from the artist’s own photographs, not from any other photo source, copyrighted or not. Entries must not violate any copyrights. 

No hand pulled prints. No diptychs, triptychs or multiple panels accepted. 

Artwork may not be withdrawn once the jury process has begun and the call for entry has closed. 

Entries may not have been accepted in any previous AIS exhibition whether online and in gallery exhibition. Any AIS  acceptance of artwork cannot be entered in any other AIS exhibition call for art. 

Work that was entered but not accepted into previous AIS exhibition may be entered again as long as they meet the above requirements.   

If your work is accepted into any AIS exhibition, it is not eligible for entry into future exhibitions. Any artist whose work is determined to be in violation of rules  may be disqualified, will forfeit any awards received and will be banned from any and all AIS exhibitions for the following three years. 

AIS JURY PROCESS

and AWARDS JUDGE

If you entered your artwork for a juried exhibition it will be reviewed by a panel of five highly qualified, nationally recognized Master and/or Signature level artists. The jurors do not know who the other jurors are and they each work independently. We use a “blind jury” process where the juror does not know the identity of the artist whose work he/she is viewing. Scoring is based solely on the merit of the work, including technical merit and level of impressionistic style.

The jurors view every painting that is entered and assigns each one a score from one (low) to ten (high). The jurors have a very short time to view and score each piece which is why it is so important that the images of your work be the best quality possible.

Once all of the jurors have completed scoring all entries, the scores are tabulated automatically by the jurying service. The number of paintings selected is determined according to the available display space in the host gallery.

The highest scoring paintings which fall within the number of pieces the gallery can accommodate become the accepted paintings for that show. Although no jurying process is perfect, AIS believes this method of selection is the most fair and unbiased method currently available.

AWARDS JUDGE: Each exhibition has ONE Awards Judge.  The judge does not review all the submitted entries--just the accepted work. The Awards Judge does not score the submitted work. The Awards Judge reviews the accepted work for selection of prizes and determines the awards which are presented at the opening reception/awards ceremony.

Read a letter about the ups and downs of entering juried exhibitions. 

AIS partners with ShowSubmit for our call for entry process.