<em>Great Rivers Biennial 2024: Saj Issa, Basil Kincaid, Ronald Young</em>, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 6, 2024–February 9, 2025. Photo: Izaiah Johnson.
Great Rivers Biennial 2024: Saj Issa, Basil Kincaid, Ronald Young, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 6, 2024–February 9, 2025. Photo: Izaiah Johnson.

Great Rivers Biennial

Established in 2003, the Great Rivers Biennial is a collaborative exhibition program presented by CAM and the Gateway Foundation. This major initiative identifies three emerging or mid-career artists working in the greater St. Louis metropolitan region, provides finalists with an unrestricted cash award of $25,000, and elevates their profiles through an exhibition and programming at CAM. The finalists are selected by a panel of independent jurors.

The Great Rivers Biennial 2026 jurors are Jessica Hong, Chief Curator at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City; Margot Norton, Chief Curator at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley; and Leslie Hewitt, a Houston-based artist. 

The call for artists for Great Rivers Biennial 2026 is open.

A panel of distinguished jurors will review all submissions that meet the eligibility requirements. The jurors will choose ten semi-finalists and visit these artists’s studios in late July to early August 2025. CAM curatorial staff will also attend the visits; however, the selection process will be made exclusively by the three jurors.

The call for artists for Great Rivers Biennial 2026 is now open. The application will be available until June 1 at 11:59 pm CT.

Apply Here

Eligibility Requirements for Artists

Categories

This opportunity is open to artists working in all media, including drawing, ceramics, film and video, installation, painting, performance, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and textiles, among others.

Residency

The Great Rivers Biennial is open to artists living in the following counties in Missouri and Illinois:

  • Missouri: St. Louis City, St. Louis County, Jefferson County, or St. Charles County.
  • Illinois: St. Clair County or Madison County.

Artists must have been resident in one of these counties for a minimum of one year prior to application (since June 1, 2024 or earlier).

Artists must continue to reside in this region throughout the designated planning, production, and exhibition period (August 2025 through February 2027).

Applicant criteria
  • Applicants must be 18 years of age or older.
  • Previous recipients of a Great Rivers Biennial award are ineligible. 
  • Artists enrolled in graduate or post-graduate programs in the St. Louis Metropolitan Region are eligible if they meet the residency requirements above. Undergraduate and high school students are not eligible. 
  • Artist collectives (2 or more artists) are eligible, provided no member is a previous Great Rivers Biennial award recipient. Applications should note all collective members. If an award is offered, it will be divided equally among members.
  • Semi-finalists must be available for an in-person studio visit with the jurors in late July or early August 2025, between 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM. If the artist does not have a studio, an alternative space may be arranged. Ten semi-finalists will be selected for these visits, which cannot be conducted via phone or video.

Resources

Questions?

Past Recipients