Blue Sky 2027 Pacific Northwest Drawers

Blue Sky is celebrating twenty years of the Pacific Northwest Drawers (PNW Drawers) program! Established in 2007, the PNW Drawers program features a juried public archive of original prints by contemporary photographers from the Pacific Northwest region. The program features work by up to 60 artists based in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Selected work can be viewed in the flat files for a full year at the gallery, or digitally on the Blue Sky website. The online exhibition will remain a part of the Blue Sky digital archive indefinitely. We are pleased to open the 2027 call, juried by Shana Lopes, the Baker Street Foundation Associate Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). 

Blue Sky, Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, is now accepting submissions for the 2027 Pacific Northwest Drawers

Photographic artists based in Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington are welcome to apply. There is no application fee to enter. 

Blue Sky is celebrating twenty years of the Pacific Northwest Drawers (PNW Drawers) program! Established in 2007, the PNW Drawers program features a public archive of original prints by contemporary photographers from the Pacific Northwest region. Annually, photographers from the Pacific Northwest are selected by an outside jury to exhibit 10 prints in accessible drawers for a year. The role of the juror is to determine from the submissions the strongest and the most evocative work representing a wide range of styles, subject matter, themes, and photographic processes. 

The PNW Drawers exhibition is the rare opportunity where visitors are encouraged to “handle the art." The PNW Drawers work attracts the attention of students, curators, collectors, and daily visitors eager to view a selection of regional photographers. Blue Sky features all accepted work on our website. Gallery events throughout the year also support and celebrate our PNW Drawers Artists.

About the 2026 Juror

Shana Lopes, PhD (she/her), is a Baker Street Foundation Associate Curator of Photography at SFMOMA. Born and raised in San Francisco, she has curated or co-curated exhibitions such as Sightlines: Photographs from the Collection, A Living for Us All: Artists and the WPA, Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, The SECA 2024 Art Award, People Make This Place: SFAI Stories, Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules, and the upcoming show Ponte City: Mikhael Subotzky & Patrick Waterhouse. Over the past fifteen years, she has gained curatorial experience at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

• Exactly 10 images (no watermarks) from a single series or body of work 
• Details about each print: title, medium, dimensions (please use "0" for depth), price, date
• Artist CV
• Brief Artist Statement (not to exceed 1,000 characters)

Submitting to this Call for Entry requires exactly 10 images (no watermarks) from a single series or body of work. We encourage applicants to submit work created within the last five years. If an applicant has previously been featured in the PNW Drawers, the submission must be of new or different work. Submitted images must be the same as the original prints intended for inclusion. Absolutely no substitutions will be permitted. 

Please include a concise artist statement (not to exceed 1,000 characters), Artist CV, and details about each print including title, medium, dimensions, price, and date. 

If accepted, works must be delivered to the gallery matted and/or mounted. Due to the physical dimensions of each drawer, the matted or mounted sizes of accepted works must not exceed 20” x 16” x 1.5" when stacked together. Please ensure that you are listing the FINAL mounted/matted dimensions, NOT the size of the print area.

CaFÉ Submission FAQ - Refer here for submission questions. 

Join Blue Sky Staff for a Zoom Q&A to help answer submission questions on November 11th, 2026 at 5:30 PM. Register here.

Sales Information

All prints selected for the PNW Drawers are eligible for sale with the artist's permission, with a 50% commission retained by Blue Sky. Artists who are currently represented by a gallery are asked to ensure that your entry does not infringe on any standing agreements before making a submission. Blue Sky will not be responsible for negotiating commissions with an artist’s representation or sending commission payments to an artist's gallery. Artists must plan to make separate payment arrangements with their gallery representation. 

Submission Deadline

The deadline for submissions is 10:59 PM (PT), Friday, December 18, 2026. There is no entry fee. Only one entry per artist is permitted. No deadline extensions. Blue Sky cannot respond to inquiries about the status of a submission, nor is the juror able to offer feedback or reasoning for rejected submissions.

Notification of Acceptance 

Accepted artists will be notified in early February, 2027. Works must be received at Blue Sky no later than 5:00 PM on March 27, 2027. Accepted works will debut to the public on First Thursday, April 1, 2027.

Any photographic artist who is a current resident of Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington is invited to submit work for consideration. Please ensure that your CaFÉ profile reflects residency in one of these locations. Submissions received from outside the eligible region will be withdrawn.