Common Ground: NJ Artists Think Monumental

The Morris Museum invites submissions for the Arts Annual 2026, Common Ground: NJ Artists Think Monumental, a new juried outdoor exhibition of monumental sculpture, installations, and murals. This exhibition will transform the Museum’s 8.4 acre campus into a dynamic landscape of contemporary art.

Submitted works should respond to scale, terrain, materiality, and public space — works that provoke curiosity, invite movement, and reimagine how art lives in shared environments. Whether abstract or figurative, playful or contemplative, temporary or durable, submissions should embody a sense of place, community, or collective experience on a large scale.

Download the ProspectusSubmit a Proposal

Juried by Johannah Hutchinson, Executive Director of the International Sculpture Center, Common Ground: NJ Artists Think Monumental celebrates the creativity and innovation of New Jersey–based sculptors. Selected works will be installed across the Museum’s grounds, activating lawns, pathways, and natural vistas with bold statements that explore form, material, and connection to place at a large scale.

The exhibition will feature sculptures and installations that engage thoughtfully with the outdoors—works that respond to light, weather, and the natural environment, or that reimagine our relationship to landscape and community. Artists are encouraged to submit pieces that demonstrate technical excellence, conceptual depth, and a strong sense of spatial dialogue.

Through Common Ground: NJ Artists Think Monumental, the Morris Museum continues its commitment to presenting contemporary art beyond traditional gallery walls—celebrating the power of sculpture to transform open space into a site of reflection, discovery, and wonder.

The New Jersey Arts Annual Exhibition is a cosponsored project of the Morris Museum and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

ABOUT THE NEW JERSEY ARTS ANNUAL

The New Jersey Arts Annual is a unique series of exhibitions highlighting the State’s visual and performing artists. In partnership with major museums around the state, one exhibition takes place each year, alternating between host institutions. These exhibitions are open to any artist currently living or working in New Jersey. The Arts Annual series is sponsored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment of the Arts. Since 1984, the New Jersey State Arts Council has co-sponsored the prestigious Annual in keeping with its mission to encourage and foster public interest in the arts, promote freedom of expression in the arts, and to facilitate the inclusion of art in every building in New Jersey. To learn more about the Council, please visit www.artscouncil.nj.gov.