(MORRISTOWN, NJ) -- The Morris Museum invites submissions for the 2026 New Jersey Arts Annual - Common Ground: New Jersey Artists Think Monumental, a juried outdoor exhibition of monumental sculpture, installations, and murals. This exhibition will transform the Museum's 8.4-acre campus into a dynamic landscape of contemporary art. The deadline is February 13 at midnight. There is no entry fee.
The New Jersey Arts Annual is a unique series of exhibitions highlighting the State’s visual and performing artists. In partnership with major museums around the state, one exhibition takes place each year, alternating between host institutions. These exhibitions are open to any artist currently living or working in New Jersey. The Arts Annual series is sponsored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment of the Arts. Since 1984, the New Jersey State Arts Council has co-sponsored the prestigious Annual in keeping with its mission to encourage and foster public interest in the arts, promote freedom of expression in the arts, and to facilitate the inclusion of art in every building in New Jersey.
Submitted works should respond to scale, terrain, materiality, and public space — works that provoke curiosity, invite movement, and reimagine how art lives in shared environments. Whether abstract or figurative, playful or contemplative, temporary or durable, submissions should embody a sense of place, community, or collective experience on a large scale. The exhibition seeks sculptures and installations that engage thoughtfully with the outdoors—works that respond to light, weather, and the natural environment, or that reimagine our relationship to landscape and community. Artists are encouraged to submit pieces that demonstrate technical excellence, conceptual depth, and a strong sense of spatial dialogue.
All artists over the age of 18 who either work or live in the state of New Jersey are eligible to apply. All mediums are eligible. There is no entry fee. Click here for complete submission guidelines or to make a submission.
Through Common Ground: NJ Artists Think Monumental, the Morris Museum continues its commitment to presenting contemporary art beyond traditional gallery walls—celebrating the power of sculpture to transform open space into a site of reflection, discovery, and wonder.
Juried by Johannah Hutchinson, Executive Director of the International Sculpture Center, Common Ground celebrates the creativity and innovation of New Jersey–based sculptors. Since joining ISC in 2004, Hutchinson has helped shape the organization’s growth in membership, programming, and publications, most notably Sculpture Magazine. Hutchinson’s practice emphasizes forging partnerships across artists, institutions, and communities. She has repeatedly underscored the importance of placing sculpture within public, educational, and interdisciplinary contexts - most recently in relation to ISC’s annual conferences and outreach initiatives.
While this call is primarily soliciting completed sculptural works, or sculptural installations, there is the potential for a mural to be installed in an outdoor location on the Morris Museum grounds. The mural would likely be a large-scale digital reproduction of a finished work. Please note the decisions regarding the reproduction and installation will be finalized in conversation with the selected artist. This finalization would require the selected artist to submit a high resolution image of the work to be reproduced at the scale appropriate for the location. Please reach out with more questions regarding the mural opportunity [email protected].
The Morris Museum thrives as the region’s premier engine of curiosity and wonderment. Founded in 1913 and located on 8.5 acres in Morris Township, New Jersey, since the mid-1960s— the museum draws visitors across the region to its dynamic and acclaimed art exhibitions program and performing arts events. Its 45,000+ object collection of art and material culture from around the world joins the art of our time in displays throughout the Museum’s purpose-built spaces and within the historic Twin Oaks mansion, designed by McKim, Mead & White.
