Rotorua Museum Art Awards 2026 - Call for Artists

Rotorua Museum is happy to announce the return of the biennial Art Awards for 2026 and are calling upon all Bay of Plenty artists to enter.

Rotorua Museum is happy to announce the return of the biennial Art Awards for 2026 and are calling upon all Bay of Plenty artists to enter.

In association with Friends of Rotorua Museum this prestigious competition is sponsored by Lockwood Buildings, Watts & Hughes, Coombes Johnston BMW and Rotorua Trust.

Entries are invited from artists, in any art or craft medium, excluding digital/moving image, who currently reside, work or study in the Bay of Plenty, and those students who study away from their Bay of Plenty home base.

Prizes include:
$15,000 Rotorua Museum Supreme Award
$1,000 Lockwood Youth Award
$1,000 Watts & Hughes Innovation Award
$1,000 Coombes Johnston BMW People’s Choice Award
($500 to the artist and $500 voter draw)

This will be the largest prize pool that Rotorua Museum has ever offered. Director, Museum & Heritage, Stewart Brown, hopes local and regional artists will take up this exciting opportunity to showcase their skills.

This is only the second ever Lockwood Youth Award which was initially introduced in 2019 to foster a passion for the arts and give confidence to young artists entering competitions. To be eligible for the Youth Award artists need to be 18 years or under on the exhibition opening date of Wednesday 4 February 2026. They also receive a discount on entry fees.

The conditions for entry include:
• Artists must be resident or work in the Bay of Plenty
• The work can be any medium, excluding digital/moving image
• The work must:
o Be a one-off original and not part of an edition
o Not infringe upon NZ copyright laws
o Not be AI generated and or have any AI components
o Be the sole work of the artist entering (unless it is listed as a collaboration)
o Have been created within the 24 months prior to and including the entry close date
o Never have been exhibited previously

Entries are limited to a maximum of two works per artist. Entries close at 5pm on 12 January 2026, with the Awards evening on Wednesday 4 February at the Sir Howard Morrison Centre, Rotorua.
The Finalist Exhibition will be open to the public at the Sir Howard Morrison Centre from 5 February until 1 March 2026, 10am – 4pm. The Salon des Refusés, for works not selected for the Finalist Exhibition, will be open over the same period and located at the Lockwood Show Home Village.

Full conditions of entry and entry forms can be found here

Employees of Rotorua Museum, Rotorua Lakes Council and Friends of Rotorua Museum executive committee are not eligible to enter.

For further information contact Julie Parsons: phone 027 242 4132 or email rotoruamuseumfriends@gmail.com