Calling all artists: Pridefest’s first-ever art showcase and contest!
Contest Entry Rules | Required Design Components | Other Types of Art | Winner Selection | Fine Print Details | How to Submit Your Artwork | View Our Gallery
We are now accepting entries for Ames Pridefest’s first-ever art showcase contest! We hope to share all of the joy and creativity of our community in a new way through this new part of Pridefest. All entries (unless disqualified for reasons below) will be displayed online and at Pridefest, with special winners’ artwork contributing to merchandise designs. Winning artists will be recognized publicly and receive an Ames Pridefest 2025 merch pack, including a t-shirt and sticker/button set.
For any questions or concerns, contact marketing@amespride.org.
Contest Entry Rules
All submissions must be completely original to the submitter and follow the required design components guidelines below. Designs must not have been previously published and must not contain any profanity, trademarks, logos, or copyrighted works of any other persons or business.
Design(s) should be submitted to marketing@amespride.org by 11:59 pm (CT) on September 12, 2025.
All printed art from designers will include artist attributes, so please include your preferred social media handle in your submitted art.
Use of artificial intelligence (AI) is NOT permitted.
Any submission must align with the mission of Ames Pride and any submission deemed unfit will not be considered.
By submitting an entry, you agree to all contest rules and grant Ames Pride limited rights to use your art in our digital and print materials, including social media, website, and merch. Artists will not be compensated for this use.
Required Design Components
Designs should incorporate the theme of “queer joy.” Bonus for queer joy in Iowa!
Visual art submissions should be high-resolution since all art will be printed for the photo collage (see details under winner selection).
Font: should you use any font or lettering in your design submission, be sure it will be legible when scaled to a 2-3” sticker or 1.5” button.
Other Types of Art
Ames Pride is open to art that is not visual in nature (e.g. poems, spoken word, music, etc.). If you would like to submit this type of art, we just ask that with your submission you include how your art could be represented visually (quotes, words, etc.) for display.
Winner Selection
After the submission window closes, artworks will be initially evaluated by an internal panel for adherence to design and submission guidelines and rules.
Designs that pass the initial evaluation will enter a voting competition on Ames Pride social media (Instagram and Facebook) through a series of knockout-style rounds in arbitrarily chosen groups of four at a time.
The number of knockout rounds will be dependent on the number of submissions.
The top FOUR TO SIX designs will be used for stickers and buttons for sale at Pridefest 2025.
Winning artists will be recognized publicly, receive a Pridefest 2025 merch pack, including a t-shirt and sticker/button pack.
All submissions will be printed and displayed as a collage photo opportunity backdrop at Pridefest.
Fine Print Details
Publicity and agreement: Contest entry constitutes an agreement by submitting designers to grant free license of all copyrights of submitted works to Ames Pride in perpetuity, for publicity and promotional purposes, with the understanding that any use of submitted art will always include artist attribution.
Media release: By submitting artwork, you grant Ames Pride limited rights to use your art in our digital and print materials, including social media, website, and merch if selected as one of the winners. Artists retain ownership of their work and will be credited wherever possible. Non-winning designs may be kept on file and considered for future use — with credit and consent.
Originality and copyright: You are guaranteeing that your design does not contain any copyrighted or trademarked material, including images found on the internet, unless clearly marked under a creative commons (cc)/non-attribution license, and was not made using artificial intelligence.
How to Submit Your Artwork
Send an email with the following to marketing@amespride.org (deadline Sept. 4, 2025 at 11:59 p.m.):
Name, pronouns, social media handle(s) and/or web presence, location
Description of piece or artist statement and artist bio (encouraged but not required)
Digital file of your artwork (high resolution or vector files encouraged)
