Bonny Doon Art, Wine, and Brew Festival Art Exhibition

MOUNTAIN MICRO + MACROCOSMS

The Open Call Application

Application due July 19th, 2026, 11:59pm PST

The application form does not save your progress.

We recommend drafting your application first then populating here before submitting the content.

Mountain Micro / Macrocosms
September 19th, 2026

The Bonny Doon Art, Wine, and Brew Festival is pleased to announce the open call for this year’s festival exhibition, inspired by the theme Mountain Micro/Macrocosms. Selected collectively by students and faculty of Bonny Doon School alongside community members and festival volunteers, this year’s theme invites artists to consider the mountain as both a vast landscape and a world of intimate detail.

Mountain Micro/Macrocosms encourages exploration of the interconnected systems that shape life within mountain environments. From towering ridgelines and expansive ecosystems to hidden fungi, insects, watersheds, and microscopic forms, the theme asks artists to examine how small and large scales coexist, influence one another, and reveal deeper understandings of place.

Artists are invited to interpret the theme broadly (literally as well as conceptually) through observations of ecology, geology, community, memory, climate, growth, and transformation. Whether focusing on the minute details often overlooked or the sweeping forces that shape the landscape over time, submitted works should engage with the dynamic relationships that exist between the individual and the collective, the local and the global, the seen and the unseen.

Working across all media, artists are encouraged to bring fresh perspectives to the mountain environment and the many worlds and spaces it contains. This exhibition celebrates curiosity, discovery, and the recognition that every landscape is composed of countless interconnected stories unfolding at multiple scales.

How to Apply + FAQs

  • The Bonny Doon Art, Wine, and Brew Festival Art Exhibition is a temporary exhibition of selected artists for the patrons of the Festival being held on September 19th, 2026 at Crest Ranch Christmas Tree Farm at the top of Bonny Doon located in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

    The festival is an annual fundraiser for the Bonny Doon School hosted by the Bonny Doon Community School Foundation, a non-profit 501c3 organizations. All proceeds directly benefit the arts and academics for the Bonny Doon School.

  • This exhibition is not for artists who only wish to apply to be a vendor at the festival. Those artists are invited to apply through our vendor application process. Accepted vendors and vendor applicants may apply for this call in addition to their vendor application but acceptance to the vendor application is not decided through this call.

  • This theme can be interpreted literally and/or conceptually. Here are some things to consider:

    • Explore the relationship between the very small and the very large.

    • Consider how tiny elements—seeds, fungi, insects, streams, soil, and microorganisms—contribute to larger mountain ecosystems.

    • Examine the mountain (or nature in general) as a collection of interconnected worlds existing at different scales.

    • Reflect on patterns that repeat across scales, from branching roots and rivers to social and ecological networks.

    • Investigate how individual actions can influence broader environmental and community systems.

    • Consider geological time, seasonal cycles, and the forces that shape (mountain) landscapes over generations.

    • Explore the connections between human communities and the natural environment.

    • Reveal hidden relationships between plants, animals, people, and the land.

    • Use the theme as a lens to move between intimate observation and expansive perspectives.

    • What worlds exist within the mountain that often go unnoticed?

    • How do small changes create larger transformations?

    • What patterns connect microscopic and monumental scales?

    • How do individuals contribute to larger communities and ecosystems?

    • What stories emerge when we shift our perspective from the macro to the micro—or vice versa?

  • We accept both traditional and non-traditional art forms.

    • All visual art mediums accepted unless otherwise specified

    • Selected artists are responsible for delivery, shipping, and return shipping costs unless otherwise noted

    • Installations or media works must include clear installation instructions and necessary equipment details

    • Artists grant permission for submitted images and artwork to be used for promotional and educational purposes

    • Work containing hazardous materials, open flames, perishables, or unsafe components may be restricted

    • AI-generated work, reproductions, or copyrighted material may require disclosure or may be ineligible depending on the exhibition guidelines

    • The organizing committee reserves the right to reject work that differs significantly from submitted images or does not meet presentation standards

    • Open to emerging, mid-career, and established artists.

    • Artists must be 18 years of age or older

    • Open to artists who are not currently enrolled in an undergraduate degree program

    • Open to local, regional, national, or international artists. Bonny Doon artists are encouraged to apply.

    • Submitted artwork must be original and created by the applying artist.

    • work must be completed within 3-5 years. New proposal work must be completed by the exhibition date.

    • Collaborative works are permitted if all contributors are listed.

    • Artists may submit between 5-10 images, links to video works/documentation are also accepted.

    • Artists must agree to exhibition timelines, installation requirements, and participation policies

    • Late or incomplete submissions may not be reviewed

    • The open call application has a $25 fee. The proceeds of this fee will be directly utilized for the exhibition and artist support. Artists with financial concerns can contact us directly for a waived fee. Please contact Chris at bdartandwine@gmail.com

  • Open Call for Artists will be May 29th - July 19th, 2026.

    Juror Review will be July 20th - 23rd, 2026.

    Artist notifications w start July 27th, 2026

    Selected artist and festival communications from July 27th - September 18th, 2026 for art fabrication and installation logistics. 

    Installation and Exhibition September 17th - 19th. Festival is on September 19th, 2026

    Deinstallation September 19th / 20th, 2026


Our Jurors

Ginger Shulick Porcella

Ginger Shulick Porcella is a curator, nonprofit executive, and arts leader known for transforming museums through community engagement, accessibility, and experimental programming. As Executive Director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, she champions inclusion, collaboration, and “unexpected audiences” through what she describes as a punk-informed leadership approach grounded in radical listening and calculated risk-taking. Porcella has previously led institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson and the Institute for Contemporary Art San Diego, and her exhibitions and publications have received national recognition from outlets such as Frieze, The New York Times, and Hyperallergic.

Christie Jarvis

Christie Jarvis is a successful landscape architect, filmmaker and ceramic artist. She is constantly observing her surroundings and envisioning the merging of function, imagery, the natural world, and philosophy of the heart. She is inspired by nature and the juxtaposition of culture within it. Christie graduated with honors from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in Landscape architecture. She has her own firm LandCulture LLP with partner Ann Baker and works on a multitude of projects from Carmel to the North Bay. Her emphasis is always encompassing sustainable habitat design and art within the landscape. Within her creative pursuits she has also found a love of film. Her most recent venture as producer of “Man in the Field the Life and Art of Jim Denevan” can be found on most streaming services. Additional short & feature length documentary films include Surfers Blood (2016), Into the Mind of Greg Long (2014), & Visualizing the Oceans (2013). Along with Landscape Architecture and film, Christie has discovered her passion and eye for hand building sculptural art pieces. Finding objects, natural and rustic man-made, and combining with hand sculpted porcelain pieces.

Sarah Sanford

Sarah Sanford is a California-based artist and educator whose interdisciplinary practice spans photography, printmaking, drawing, and installation. Her work explores light, impermanence, and interconnectedness through abstract biological and cosmic imagery inspired by medical scans, cellular structures, and telescopic views. Using reflective pigments and translucent materials, Sanford creates immersive works that blur boundaries between science, perception, and the natural world. She has exhibited internationally for more than two decades and currently teaches in the Art Department at University of California Santa Cruz, while maintaining a studio in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Christopher Reynolds

Bonny Doon Community School Foundation President - Open Call Advisor

Christopher Reynolds is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and arts administrator with extensive experience teaching across higher education institutions, including the University of Maryland Global Campus, Irvine Valley College, Long Beach City College, California State University Channel Islands, and Cabrillo College. He holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a BA from the University of Southern California, where he studied under influential artists including Charles Gaines, Sharon Lockhart, and Allan Sekula. His interdisciplinary practice spans drawing, collage, video, sculpture, performance, and social practice, supported by curatorial and administrative experience, including work as Assistant Curator at the Torrance Art Museum. Reynolds’s work has been featured in major public art initiatives including Current:LA Food and collaborative projects with Slanguage at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.

Seth Heitzenrater

Bonny Doon Art, Wine, and Brew Festival Art Committee - Open Call Advisor

Seth Heitzenrater is an event operations and production leader with a lifelong passion for hospitality, storytelling, and creating experiences that bring people together. Working at the intersection of creativity and precision, Heitzenrater combines strategy, logistics, and emotional engagement to produce meaningful and memorable events. His collaborative and sustainability-minded approach to leadership focuses on elevating teams, building effective systems, and transforming ambitious ideas into impactful realities that connect people through innovation, community, and shared experience. He was the Chief Operating Officer for Outstanding in the Field and current General Manager for La Posta Restaurant in Santa Cruz, CA.

The Open Call Application

Application due July 19th, 2026, 11:59pm PST

The application form does not save your progress.

We recommend drafting your application first then populating here before submitting the content.