Art that Matters to the Planet: Dark Skies (OPEN CALL)

Note: This year, we have a few changes! Artists should please note that the call is going out three months earlier than usual—August instead of October—to match our updated 2027 exhibition schedule. In order to be more in line with other juried exhibition calls, shipping costs will be the responsibility of the exhibiting artist. However, this goes along with another new development: for the first time ever, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute will be awarding prizes for First, Second, and Third places in this exhibition ($1,000, $500, and $250, respectively.) Winners will be announced at the exhibition opening on January 29th, 2027.

Starting August 1st, 2026, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, NY, invites artists to submit work for our sixth annual juried exhibition of Art that Matters to the Planet. Art that Matters to the Planet explores the ways in which art and artists matter – by drawing us into a deeper relationship with nature, opening hearts and minds to the critical challenges of our time, and inspiring us to the solutions we need to address those challenges.

Each year, the theme for this exhibition draws inspiration from the work of Roger Tory Peterson, typically his series of field guides. Our 2027 theme, inspired by A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets, is titled Art That Matters to the Planet: Dark Skies. This exhibition will explore the night skies (both immediately within view and farther into the cosmos) and what they mean to us. Artists are invited to turn their attention upwards, and explore who uses the night skies—birds that navigate in the darkness, animals that awaken when dusk settles, the effects of space pollution (orbital debris or “space junk”)—and what lies beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

Jon Lomberg of PBS’s ‘The Farthest – Voyager in Space’ poses for a portrait during the 2017 Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 30, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Benjo Arwas/Contour by Getty Images)

This year, we are pleased to announce that Jon Lomberg will be serving as our guest juror. Lomberg is one of the world’s most celebrated astronomical artists. He was Carl Sagan’s principal artistic collaborator for over two decades. Jon Lomberg was also the Design Director for NASA’s Voyager Golden Record: 2027 celebrates the fifty-year anniversary of its launch. A photograph by Jay Pasachoff—the author of A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets —was included on the Golden Record. Jon Lomberg’s other achievements include Project Director for Visions of Mars, a DVD now on Mars on a NASA lander, co-designer of the Mars sundials aboard three NASA rovers on Mars, EMMY Award winner as Chief Artist for the TV series COSMOS, Designer of the animated opening of the movie CONTACT (selected as one of the 100 Best Movie Openings of All Time), and creator of the Galaxy Garden in Hawaii. Earth’s first large-scale walk-through model of the Milky Way Galaxy is based on Lomberg’s Portrait of the Milky Way mural for the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.