Ketchikan area Artists and Creatives have been inspiring the communities of this area since the beginning. Whether it is beautifully engineered and created halibut hooks, or the magnificent totem poles of the area, to the stories, poetry and drawings for the inception of the Alaska Magazine, to the creation and evolution of Wearable Art in Alaska artists continue to make the world we live in meaningful and joyful.

This page is still a work in progress and will soon contain an Artist Directory of the area artists, and a catalogue of Public Art in the Ketchikan area, plus artists' resources.

Below are the Calls to Artists listed in deadline order. Local and Regional Calls to Artists are posted as we find them. If you know of a Call that is not listed on this page, please e-mail details to info@ketchikanarts.org we would love to include it here as a resource to artists!

Returning Vendors from the 50th Annual Blueberry Arts Festival have until June 1st, 2026 to apply and keep your priority placement. (However, it does not hurt our feeling to any degree if you were to, say, apply prior to June 1st at 4:58pm....)

Are you a newbie to the Blueberry Arts Festival? We place new applicants by virtue of when the applications are submitted. In other words, first come, first serve. You should definitley apply soon!

The We Belong Block Party will be June 20th from 11:30am to 3:30pm.

Further details:
Inspired by the success of the Fire Department, Police Department, and other libraries, The Ketchikan Public Library and the Friends of the Library have decided to have custom hoodies made for sale. Understanding that we have a strong artist community here in Ketchikan, we see this as an opportunity to show off our local talents and to see how creatively brilliant our artists are. Competition will be strong, and choices tough, but the Friends of the Library will pay up to $600 to whichever artist or artists whose artwork is selected, for the artwork and the rights to it. We are excited to see what new and innovative designs our local artists will create for this project!

Requirements:
1 Library & Alaska inspired 2 color illustration
1 Ketchikan Public Library (KPL) 2 color logo
Artwork must be able to be printed onto a black and/or grey background.
Must be submitted digitally in
300dpi or Vector file format.
ABSOLUTELY ZERO A.I. GENERATED ARTWORK.
Submission deadline is June 12th, 2026.

Submit completed artwork to:
demello@firstcitylibraries.org

The chosen design will be used as a logo on all Totem Heritage Center 50th Anniversary publications and promotions, printed on a commemorative poster, and potentially used on event memorabilia products and gifts recognizing and promoting the Totem Heritage Center.

$1,000 will be awarded for the chosen design.

DEADLINE
Design submissions must be received by 5:00 PM, June 30, 2026

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Digital artwork must be in a scalable vector format (EPS or PDF) or full-size high-resolution (300+ dpi) image file (PNG or JPG). Traditional, non-digital artwork should be no smaller than 8.5” x 11” and no larger than 11” x 17”. Artists should be aware that in the digitization of drawings or paintings for promotional use, staff will do their best to honor and maintain the original design but some slight variations may occur through scanning,
photography, etc.

Have your art work ready to be hung, with application completely filled out; and make sure your membership is up to date.

The Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council has been producing the Blueberry Arts Festival since 1975! Since that time we have supported artists as they developed their work, highlighted many, many bands, heard thousands of poems, cleaned up so many gallons of slug slime, made a gazillion blueberry pies, seen sooooo many pets and dolls, hung extraordinary art, added space for more artists, added food booths, invited other nonprofits to showcase their organizations, added booths to the Methodist Church parking lot, added booths to Main Street, seen some pretty amazing handmade, humanpowered Blueberry boats!, added booths to the City parking lot....moved to Mission, dock and Main streets.

We are able to place a little over 160 booths, and estimate at least 8000 attend the 3-day Festival.

Please join us! You won't be disappointed.

ARTISTS - applications to participate in the Blueberry Arts Festival are always opened during the Celebration of the Sea Art Walk, the first Friday of May.