Artist Opportunities at the Alaska State Museum

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Check out Artist Opportunities at the Sheldon Jackson Museum.

Alaska Positive 2025

Alaska Positive is the statewide juried photographic exhibition organized and toured by the Alaska State Museum.

Since 1970, Alaska Positive has encouraged photography as an art form in Alaska. Now in its 55th year, this juried photography exhibition highlights the role of Alaskan photographers in today's visual culture. Its purpose is to encourage the practice of photography as an art form in Alaska. The exhibition will open in Juneau on December 5, 2025 and close on March 14, 2026. The exhibition will then travel to museums throughout Alaska.

bundled up person on steep slope with snow and trees knocked down by avalanche
Patrice Helmar, Avalanche, 2020, Gelatin silver print

JUROR: PATRICE APHRODITE HELMAR

Helmar is a photographer and artist engaged in the poetics of lived experience and everyday life. Their multidisciplinary work is concerned with issues of labor, class, queerness, and the politics of representation.

Helmar was born in Juneau and grew up working in their father’s small-town camera shop and darkroom. Their work has been shown at PARTICIPANT INC, the Jewish Museum, Ortega Y Gasset Projects, Gaa Gallery, the National Museum of Iceland, and other spaces.

They received an MAT from the University of Alaska Southeast in 2013 and an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University in 2015. They studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2022 and received a 2025 MacDowell Fellowship. Helmer is a Lecturer on Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University and Columbia University's Visual Arts MFA program. They live and work in Juneau and New York City.

APPLY ONLINE

The call for submissions for Alaska Positive opens Monday, September 8 and closes Friday, October 17, 2025, at 9:59 p.m Alaska Time on CaFÉ. For more information, contact Jackie Manning, Curator of Exhibitions, at 907-465-4819 or jackie.manning@alaska.gov.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The competition is open to residents of Alaska 18 years of age or older. Only photographs not shown in previous statewide juried competitions are eligible. Any work that makes use of photographic processes is eligible. A.I.-generated photographic images are not accepted. All work must be original and completed within the last three years. Entries may only be submitted by the artist.

SCHEDULE SUMMARY

SEPTEMBER 8, 2025 – Call-for-entry for Alaska Positive 2025 opens on CaFÉ, callforentry.org
OCTOBER 17, 2025 – All digital submissions for initial selection are due on CaFÉ by 9:59 PM Alaska Time.
NOVEMBER 21, 2025 – Juror-selected submissions are due, matted and exhibit-ready. Deadline for receipt is 4:00pm, at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau.
NOVEMBER 25, 2025 – Lecture by juror Patrice Aphrodite Helmar at the Alaska State Museum.
DECEMBER 5, 2025 – Exhibit opens at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau and runs through March 7, 2026.
EXHIBITION TRAVELS to museums throughout Alaska, schedule to be determined.

AWARDS

There will be a Juror's Choice Award and two Awards of Recognition. The awards are sponsored by the Friends of the State Library, Archives, and Museum. The juror may also select a number of photographs for Honorable Mention.