Notification will be made on June 11, 2026

Deadline to Enter was May 13, 2026

Will be on Display July 8 – August 15, 2025 at Maryland Hall’s Earl Gallery

Virtual Awards Ceremony will be July 12 from  5 – 6 PM via Zoom

Introducing Off the Wall

Art has spent centuries hanging politely on walls, waiting to be looked at. Off the Wall is done waiting. We’re calling for sculptures that plant themselves in the room. That commands space. That makes someone walk around it, step back from it, or get uncomfortably close to it. Work that couldn’t exist any other way, in any other form, in any other place. The only question now is whether your work is brave enough to stand alone.

MFA exhibitions are blind juried by professional and credentialed art experts. Entry is open to artists residing in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. Any original free-standing 3D work that follows our exhibition guidelines will be considered. Selected works will be displayed in this MFA organized exhibition at Maryland Hall’s Earl Gallery in Annapolis, MD from July 8 – August 15, 2026. Exhibition Co-Chairs: Nichole Leavy and Amani Freeman

Click this icon to view and print the downloadable prospectus.

Juror: Jim Hirshfield, Installation Artist and Professor of Sculpture at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Jim Hirschfield teaches sculpture at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he served as Chair of the Department of Art from 2010 to 2017.  Hirschfield has received major grants and fellowships from both public and private foundations, including awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Graham Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Art Matters, and the Rockefeller Foundation.  His earliest work expressed concepts through the genre of installation where his artistic environments were explorations into ethereal spaces and light.  They were architectonic constructions that culminated in opalescence environments.  After creating an installation in a tractor trailer which then moved to various locations in and around Seattle, Washington, Hirschfield discovered the satisfaction of creating for a wider audience.  He gradually began exploring, and then whole heartedly focused his creative energies within the realm of public art.  Hirschfield has a long history in public art, having completed over 50 public art projects ranging from freestanding sculpture to sculptural environments.  He has also served on the Public Art Network Advisory Council and has authored four separate Public Art Masterplans.  Influenced by a site’s characteristics, Hirschfield’s  designs can be traced to the parameters of a site.  At the same time, he strives to create works that ensure a variety of poetic experiences by searching a theme, something about a place that inspires and directs his design.  He describes this as finding an inherent reality that lends itself to visual metaphor.  The success of his projects are a result of strong aesthetic designs that engage an audience, and once engaged, each viewer discovers layers of meaning that provide the participant with a multifaceted and profound artistic experience.

Juror’s Statement

To be published with the awards on July 13.

Awards

Awards designated by the juror total $1,000.