PHOENIX (March 1, 2026) – Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has opened the annual call for submissions for the institution’s Sally and Richard Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards (Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards), a juried grant program that provides recognition and $10,000 in financial support for emerging, professional artists based in Arizona. Additionally, applicants who are not chosen for the Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards will be automatically entered into the running for the Sette/Cohn Artist Award, a $5,000 prize awarded to an emerging Arizona artist selected from the Lehmann Emerging Artist Award application pool. This year’s open call will again be hosted in partnership with Artlink, a Phoenix-based arts organization who has partnered with the Museum on the institution’s Arizona Artist Awards open call for nearly a decade. The call will be open from March 1 – April 27, 2026 to qualifying artists who wish to present their work for consideration. There is no cost to submit an application. Up to two Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards recipients and one Sette/Cohn Artist Award recipient will be announced the week of September 21, 2026.

“Investing in and supporting artists who live and work in Arizona remains at the heart of the mission of Phoenix Art Museum,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “We are immensely thankful to our donors who allow us to enact on that commitment with their support of the artists’ prizes. Not only does their generosity support the work and lives of local artists, but also creating greater awareness more broadly of the incredible work Arizona artists are creating in our state, enabling the Museum to display these remarkable, compelling works to our Arizona community and beyond.”

The Sally and Richard Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards fosters the creation of contemporary art by encouraging emerging artists working in Arizona through grants and annual exhibitions, in addition to providing additional programming opportunities for artist talks with the community at PhxArt. Each year, two artists are selected as award recipients by a jury assembled by Christian Ramírez, the Cohn Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and Director of Engagement at PhxArt. The jury includes curators, artists, and other visual-arts experts from both in and outside of Arizona. In addition to each artists receiving a $10,000 prize, Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards recipients also receive a lifetime Museum Membership and an invitation to present their work in a group exhibition at PhxArt.

For those individuals who are not selected as Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards recipients, their applications will be considered for the Museum’s Sette/Cohn Artist Award. The Sette/Cohn Artist Award is a five-year initiative dedicated to strengthening community partnerships and local artists through the Museum’s annual Arizona Artist Awards program. It is named in honor of Lisa Sette, who has supported and represented Arizona-based artists, both through her gallery and personally, for more than 40 years, and Lee and Mike Cohn, longtime Museum supporters who in 2023 provided the seed funding to launch the Phoenix Art Museum Education and Engagement Excellence Fund and are now extending their generosity to support local artists. Artists who apply for the Lehmann Emerging Artist Awardswill be automatically entered into the running for the Sette/Cohn Artist Award and do not need to reapply.

Call for 2026 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards + Sette/Cohn Award Submissions

PhxArt will accept submissions for the 2026 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards and the Sette/Cohn Award from March 1 – April 27, 2026. Applications are accepted online only and are due by 5:00 p.m. MST on April 27, 2026. The selection committee will award up to two Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards of $10,000 each and one Sette/Cohn Artist Award of $5,000. Lehmann Award recipients will also be invited to present work in a 2026 group exhibition at the Museum and receive a lifetime Membership to PhxArt. There is no fee to submit to the open call.

Eligibility Requirements:

Artists must be considered emerging artists to apply, meeting at least one of the following criteria: 

• Artists with at least four years of professional experience and who are currently making and exhibiting new work.
• Artists whose work has been shown in Arizona but not extensively outside of the state.  
• Individuals returning to art after a hiatus. 
• Artists must have been living in Arizona for at least one year at the time of application.
• Artists working in all media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, new media, performance, photography, and video, may apply.
• Submitted artwork must have been produced within the past three years.
• Artists must be registered as an Artlink Articipant. Register as an Articipant* with Artlink here.

Applicants are ineligible if they are:

• Artists who have not yet resided in Arizona for one year
• Enrolled full-time in an academic program
• Individuals who engage in art making as a hobby
• Previous winners of an Emerging Artist Award from Phoenix Art Museum
• Current Phoenix Art Museum staff, board, or volunteers.

Submission Requirements:
Applications must be submitted online USING THIS LINK and include:

• Artist name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number
• Artist website
• Resume/CV
• Artist statement (300 words or fewer)
• Six (6) images of the artwork you wish to be reviewed by jurors:
  • Artwork must be produced in the last three (3) years.
  • Video work samples will be accepted; they are not to exceed three minutes each.
• Descriptions of each submitted artwork
  • Please include title, date completed, medium, and dimension
  • Short description of the work is optional (100 words or fewer)

Submission Deadline:

All materials must be submitted online by 5:00 pm MST on April 27, 2026. Submit applications to this link.Application materials apply to both the Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards and the Sette/Cohn Artist Award. Please email curatorial@phxart.org with any questions.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has engaged millions of visitors with the art of our region and world. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, PhxArt creates spaces of exchange and belonging for all audiences through dynamic exhibitions, collections, and experiences with art. Each year, 300,000 guests on average engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern, and contemporary art and fashion design, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. PhxArt also presents live performances, outstanding examples of global cinema, arts-education programs and workshops, an art+music festival, and more for the community. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

About the Sally and Richard Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards

The Sally and Richard Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards are presented annually by Phoenix Art Museum. The artists’ grants recognition program is a continuation of a program begun by former Museum support group Contemporary Forum, which awarded more than 180 artists’ grants over more than 30 years. The Contemporary Forum Artists’ Grants concluded in 2017, at which time Phoenix Art Museum continued to subsidize an annual artists’ grants program to support the efforts and recognition of Arizona-based artists. In April 2021, the annual artists’ grants program was rebranded to acknowledge the support of local donors Sally and Richard Lehmann, who have committed to funding the Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards annually for a minimum of 10 years. Effective with the 2024 cohort of Arizona Artist Award recipients, PhxArt increased monetary support for the annual Lehmann Emerging Artists Awards from $5,000 to $10,000 per artist (two awarded), made possible through the generosity of the Cohn Fund for Arts & Culture at the Arizona Community Foundation.  

About the Sette/Cohn Artist Award

The Sette/Cohn Artist Award is a five-year initiative dedicated to supporting arts engagement and strengthening community partnerships through the annual Arizona Artist Awards program at Phoenix Art Museum. This $5,000 unrestricted prize is awarded to an emerging Arizona artist selected from the Lehmann Emerging Artist Award applicant pool by a jury panel. It is named in honor of Lisa Sette and Lee and Mike Cohn. Sette is a leading advocate for original and thought-provoking artistic expression, and for more than 40 years, Lisa Sette Gallery has been at the forefront of contemporary art, exhibiting artists from Arizona and across the country working on the edge of aesthetic, social, and conceptual investigation. The Cohns are longtime Museum supporters who in 2023 provided the seed funding to launch the Phoenix Art Museum Education and Engagement Excellence Fund and with the Sette/Cohn Artist Award have now extended their generosity to support Arizona-based artists.

About Artlink Inc.

Artlink keeps the arts integral to our development by connecting artists, businesses and the community. Founded as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization by artists in 1989, the Artlink name is a guiding principle for the organization, as it supports stakeholders of the arts and culture community, amplifying its collective strength. Visit artlinkphx.org and artinerary.com.

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PHOENIX (October 20, 2025) – On November 28, 2025, Phoenix Art Museum premieres Ed Mell: In the Studio as part of the reopening celebrations of the institution’s Art of the Americas + Europe galleries in the newly dedicated James K. Ballinger Wing. Offering unprecedented insight into Mell’s process as well as the artist’s final paintings, the exhibition presents for the first time a selection of oil studies and works on paper made by the beloved Arizona artist from 1974 through 2023, many of which have never been on view to the public.   

“Phoenix Art Museum is thrilled to unveil a remarkable selection of works by Ed Mell, bringing his vision to our audiences at the Museum,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “Throughout his illustrious career, Mell has captivated art lovers by masterfully portraying the breathtaking landscapes of Arizona, leaving an indelible mark on a generation of artists. This exhibition invites visitors to explore the intimate evolution of his artistry within the studio. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Edmund Paul Mell, Jr Trust, gallery, and family for their invaluable partnership in presenting this extraordinary display to our community.”

Born in Phoenix, Ed Mell (1942–2024) graduated from the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles in 1967 before moving to New York, where he worked as an ad agency art director and, in partnership with Arizona artist Skip Andrews, formed a freelance illustration studio called Sagebrush Studios. In 1973, Mell permanently relocated to Phoenix in 1973 and, by 1978, had fully devoted himself to landscape painting. For more than 50 years, he immersed himself in Arizona’s arts community, establishing his studio just blocks away from Phoenix Art Museum. Throughout his career, the artist became known for his use of vibrant color and angular compositions, and while his paintings of monumental cloud formations, geologic strata, and distinctive desert life have been extensively collected and viewed nationwide, he chose to retain many small paintings and works on paper for his personal collection, rarely selling or exhibiting them.

Ed Mell: In the Studio publicly showcases for the first time many of these oil studies and works on paper, including those left behind in Mell’s studio at the time of his death in 2024. The works in small scale served as preludes to larger studies and even larger finished canvases, and presented alongside select archival materials, including personalized insight from Ken Richardson, the Ed Mell Gallery Director, audiences experience the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the artist’s intent, evolution and resolute commitment to abstraction and capturing the desert environs of Arizona. 

“This mini survey, which focuses on Ed Mell’s process studies, offers museumgoers an unprecedented opportunity to see how Mell created his compositions,” said Olga Viso, the Museum’s Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs who curated the exhibition. “Visitors will be able to view multiple states of the same composition side-by-side and observe striking connections between some of Mell’s earliest experiments from the 1970s and his final canvases. The retrospective look affirms Mell’s lifelong commitment to abstraction and reveals a more minimal and abstract artist than audiences familiar with Mell might recognize.”

For high-resolution imagery and to request interviews, please contact the Communications Office at press@phxart.org. 

About the Exhibition

The inaugural installation of the James K. Ballinger Wing, an initiative honoring the historic collections of Phoenix Art Museum and the visionary leadership of Director Emeritus James K. Ballinger, was made possible by generous gifts from the Virginia M. Ullman Foundation and the Kemper & Ethel Marley Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation, Cathie Lemon, the Men’s Arts Council, and Harry and Rose Papp. 

Ed Mell: In the Studio in the Woodyard Gallery is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by Olga Viso, the Selig Family Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs. It is presented by the Kemper & Ethel Marley Foundation. 

All exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum are underwritten by the Phoenix Art Museum Exhibition Excellence Fund, founded by The Opatrny Family Foundation with additional major support provided by Joan Cremin. 

Entrance into Ed Mell: In the Studio is included in general admission for the public. Admission is free for Museum Members and youth aged 5 and younger. Visitors may also enjoy reduced admission to the exhibition during voluntary-donation times on Wednesdays from 3 – 8 pm, made possible by SRP and City of Phoenix, and First Fridays from 5 – 8 pm, made possible by APS and Lexus, with additional support from Arizona Community Foundation. For a full breakdown of general admission prices and hours, see phxart.org/visit/.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has engaged millions of visitors with the art of our region and world. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, PhxArt creates spaces of exchange and belonging for all audiences through dynamic exhibitions, collections, and experiences with art. Each year, 300,000 guests on average engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern, and contemporary art and fashion, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. PhxArt also presents live performances, outstanding examples of global cinema, arts-education programs and workshops, a monthly live-music series, and more for the community. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.##

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