Moja Arts Festival returns Sept. 24-Oct. 1, issues open call for an artist to design official festival poster

MOJA Arts and the Office of Cultural Affairs are issuing an open call for an artist to design the official poster for the 2026 MOJA Arts Festival, returning September 24-October 1 at locations across Charleston.

This is the first year the now eight-day festival is being co-produced by the Office of Cultural Affairs and MOJA Arts, a newly formed 501(c)(3) nonprofit created to plan and grow the event. Applications to make events or performances an official part of the MOJA Festival are available HERE. The deadline is August 5.

This year’s growing schedule includes reggae and gospel music, poetry, drama, storytelling, a Gullah Geechee cook-off, and a Golden Anniversary finale at Hampton Park on Oct. 1 celebrating the 50th anniversary of iconic 1976 albums, produced by Ray Chew and Vivian Scott Chew and featuring Tommy Brown and Zandrina Dunning. As previously announced, this year’s festival also honors the cultural legacies of Barbados, Gullah Geechee, Jamaica, and Sierra Leone.

OFFICIAL POSTER

Artists living anywhere in South Carolina are invited to compete for the festival poster, which will also appear on merchandise and digital marketing materials. The City is awarding the highest poster commission in MOJA history: $5,000.

Submission guidelines:

• The artwork must have been completed within the last two years and not previously exhibited in the Charleston region.
• Each artist may submit one digital image of an original work, not exceeding 36″ x 36″, for poster consideration.
• Artists should include up to four additional digital images as work samples. Samples must be two-dimensional but may be in any medium.
• Submissions created wholly or in part using AI image-generation tools are not eligible.

Complete rules and applications are available at citygalleryatwaterfrontpark.com, which also has details on the MOJA Arts Festival Juried Exhibition. The poster submission deadline is August 20.

OCA is inviting residents with ties to this year’s honored cultures to share ideas at [email protected]. The full, growing festival schedule is available at mojafestival.com.

The City of Charleston’s Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA), established in 1977, guides the city’s investment in fine and performing arts, culture and history for the Charleston metro area’s roughly 870,000 residents and nearly 8 million annual visitors. OCA produces the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the Juneteenth Block Party and History Lesson, and Holy City Holidays, and co-sponsors the national MOJA Arts Festival.