Call to artists for Schaefer Portrait Challenge 2025 announced

Applications are open for artists 18 years and older, who are residents of the state of Hawai‘i, and want to enter portraits into a statewide juried art exhibition, a signature exhibition of Schaefer International Gallery at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center (MACC), that occurs once every three years.

The exhibition dates for the Schaefer Portrait Challenge (SPC) will be Jan. 14 through March 22, 2025 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Schaefer International Gallery. Receiving dates for artist entries take place in September and October of this year.

The challenge presents the unique diversity of the people of the Hawaiian Islands through explorations in portraiture. The portrait must depict a living person in Hawai‘i. Artists must have a direct relationship with the subject, including live sittings. Self-portraits are allowed. Accepted media include drawing, painting, textile, sculpture, printmaking, and mixed media (photography and computer-generated imagery allowed only as components in mixed media).

Artists interested in participating in SPC 2025 are encouraged to access the “Call to Artists” prospectus and application on the MACC’s website at mauiarts.org/spc2025.

The jurors for SPC 2025 will be Sonnet Coggins, executive director at The Merwin Conservancy, Maui; Mina Elison, curator at Donkey Mill Art Center, Hawai‘i Island; and Tom Lieber, artist, Kaua‘i.

2024 Entry Dates

• Maui
  • Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Alexa Higashi Meeting Room
  • One Cameron Way, Kahului
  • Receiving: Saturday, Oct. 12 from 9 a.m to noon
  • Pick up: Monday, Oct. 13 from 9 a.m. to noon

• Kaua‘i
  • Kukui Grove Center (Unit to be announced)
  • 3-2600 Kaumualiʻi Highway, Līhuʻe
  • Receiving: Saturday, Sept. 21 from 1 to 4 p.m.
  • Pick up: Sunday, Sept. 22 from 4 to 6 p.m.

• Hawai‘i Island
  • Wailoa Center
  • 200 Piopio Street, Hilo
  • Receiving: Saturday, Sept. 28 from 1 to 4 p.m.
  • Pick up: Sunday, Sept. 29 from 4 to 6 p.m.

• O‘ahu
  • East-West Center (John A. Burns Hall)
  • 1601 East-West Road, Honolulu
  • Receiving: Saturday, Oct. 5 from 1 to 4 p.m.
  • Pick up: Sunday, Oct. 6 from 4 to 6 p.m.

The challenge has three substantial cash prices, including:

• The Jurors’ Choice Award for $15,000, sponsored by Carolyn Schaefer and selected by jurors;
• The Gene Freedman Artists’ Choice Award for $5,000, sponsored by the Eugene and Ruth Freedman Family Foundation and selected by vote of SPC 2025 exhibiting artists;
• And the Ruth Freedman People’s Choice Award for $5,000, sponsored by the Eugene and Ruth Freedman Family Foundation and selected by popular vote of gallery visitors.

Held since 2003, this is the eight iteration of the statewide juried exhibition.