Students at Virginia’s Community Colleges are being invited to enter the 2025-2026 Visual Art Luminary and Poet Laureate Competition. Most of Virginia’s Community Colleges are participating in the program for the upcoming year. “I Dream” is the theme for the competitions. Each participating college will select its own poet laureate and visual art luminary. College winners will advance to the state competition, scheduled for March at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke.
Faculty and staff who know talented students who write poetry or create visual arts are encouraged to tell these students about competitions occurring at many of our community colleges.
The competitions for Poet Laureate and Visual Arts Luminary awards are open to all students who are enrolled at least part-time in adult education, workforce credential, certificate, dual enrollment/early college, or degree programs at a participating Virginia Community College in Summer 2025, Fall 2025, and/or Spring 2026.
Applicants may submit materials only to the college within their region to enable them to accept college and service region invitations. Dual enrollment or early college students under age 18 must be able to secure parental permission. Interest applications are available now. Interested students must submit work by the deadline identified by their college, if the college is participating.
This is the second time that the Poet Laureate and Visual Arts Luminary competitions have been held. During the 2023-2024 cycle, the state Poet Laureate competition was hosted by Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville. Ana Leng, who represented Central Virginia Community College, was named the inaugural Poet Laureate for Virginia’s Community Colleges.
Students interested in entering the Poet Laureate competition must submit three original poems or prose poems for consideration; at least one poem must be related to the theme, “I Dream.” Students interested in visual arts must submit one original art piece created in the last year and related to theme, “I Dream.” The accepted art forms are drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and ceramics. Any work – whether poetry or visual arts – that has been created with the use of artificial intelligence is not eligible. Much of the work should have been created in 2025 or early 2026.
Students selected as their college’s Poet Laureate will compete to become the Poet Laureate for Virginia’s Community Colleges. For the first time, winning visual artists will be judged for the overall distinction, Visual Art Luminary for Virginia’s Community Colleges. Virginia Western Community College will host the state competition March 27-28, 2026, with the free public event held on March 28, 2026.
Here’s the list of participating colleges and competition coordinators: Blue Ridge, Alissa Cruz and Jessica Martinkosky; Brightpoint, Brittney Scott and Paula Winn; Paul D. Camp, Julie Eng; Central Virginia, Lana Dove; Germanna, Sarah Hall; Laurel Ridge, David Gray; Mountain Empire, Meg Wilson; New River, Tammy Parks; NOVA, Caitlin Centineo; Patrick & Henry, Terry Young; Piedmont Virginia, Fenella Belle (visual arts) and Scott Weaver (poet); Rappahannock, Jennifer Newhouse; Reynolds, Ben Cowman and Nicole Tong; Southside Virginia, Vondrenna Smithers; Southwest Virginia, Morgan Gilbert (visual arts) and Aranda Vance (poet); Tidewater, Carolyn Phillips; Virginia Highlands, Marie Porterfield (visual art) and Julianna Jones (poet); Virginia Peninsula, David Garrett; Virginia Western, Natasha Lee and Bernadette Battle, Wytheville, Rodney Alderman and Yvonne Grigg.
You can learn more at the event website.
General inquiries also may be sent to Carla Kimbrough, ckimbrough@vccs.edu.
