Sam Z. Coronado Poster Art Contest

Theme

Luz/Light: Community Ingenuity and Creative leadership

This year’s theme is dedicated to our community’s tenacious sense of advocacy, creativity, and defiant inventiveness.  Drawing on the metaphor of Light/Luz we want contributing artists to imagine how leadership and knowledge is refracted through contemporary and historical experiences of Latinx/e communities. This theme emerges from the cultural concept and artistic moment of rasquachismo, or “doing the most with the least” popularized by Tomás Ibarra-Frausto in 1989. As a philosophy, a rasquache aesthetic centralizes giving a new function to something that would conventionally be considered broken or otherwise 'useless’. Formerly a classist slur, it has since been re-envisioned by artists, advocates, abuelas, as well as invested others whose tenacity to lead with characteristic style and unwavering integrity formed our foundations, and our futures.

The 2025-26 Poster Art Contest has concluded. The 2026-27 contest will open in the Fall of 2026.

Theme

The Center for Mexican American Studies is proud to announce Education Is Our Strength as the chosen theme for the 2025-2026 Sam Z. Coronado Poster Art Contest. Feel free to interpret this theme however it moves you in the creation of your artwork. We invite all full-time enrolled UT Austin undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of major or college, to submit an original poster design. Three winning entries will be determined by a blind jury process, and the chosen artwork will live on in various forms throughout the next year and half. This student award is as much about making a lasting impression on the visual archive of our department as it is about winning.

Deadline

Applications for the 2025-2026 academic year are OPEN! Deadline to submit entries is Monday, December 1, 2025 at 5:00 pm.

Please note that the winning entry becomes the sole property of Latino Studies and that students may submit multiple entries but only place once.

Awards

Awards will be granted—regardless of citizenship or documented status—in the amounts of:

• $1000 for First Prize
• $750 for Second Prize
• $500 for Third Prize

In addition, all three winners will receive print reproductions of their work.

Eligibility & Guidelines

We invite all full-time enrolled UT Austin undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of major or college, to submit an original poster design. Artists must adhere to the following specifications in submission design:

• Image size must be 18 X 24 inches vertical or horizontal.
• Digital images must be at least 300 dpi.
• For original paintings: Must be accompanied by high-resolution (300 dpi or greater) .tiff, .jpeg, .png or .pdf image of the work.

Artists should submit entries in electronic form. The submission form link will be added when the theme and deadlines are announced. If you are also submitting a hard copy, please deliver original artwork to the Department of Mexican American & Latina/o Studies (MALS) office on the second floor of the Gordon-White Building (GWB 2.102).

For further information, please contact latinostudies@austin.utexas.edu.

Theme

The Center for Mexican American Studies is proud to announce ¡Adelante! as the chosen theme for the 2024-2025 Sam Z. Coronado Poster Art Contest. Feel free to interpret this theme however it moves you in the creation of your artwork. We invite all full-time enrolled UT Austin undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of major or college, to submit an original poster design. Three winning entries will be determined by a blind jury process, and the chosen artwork will live on in various forms throughout the next year and half. This student award is as much about making a lasting impression on the visual archive of our department as it is about winning.

 

Deadline

Thank you for your interest! The application window for the 2024-2025 academic year is closed.

Please note that the winning entry becomes the sole property of Latino Studies and that students may submit multiple entries but only place once.

 

Awards

Awards will be granted—regardless of citizenship or documented status—in the amounts of:

• $1000 for First Prize
• $750 for Second Prize
• $500 for Third Prize

In addition, all three winners will receive print reproductions of their work.

 

Eligibility & Guidelines

We invite all full-time enrolled UT Austin undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of major or college, to submit an original poster design. Artists must adhere to the following specifications in submission design:

• Image size must be 18 X 24 inches vertical or horizontal.
• Digital images must be at least 300 dpi.
• For original paintings: Must be accompanied by high-resolution (300 dpi or greater) .tiff, .jpeg, .png or .pdf image of the work.

Artists should submit entries in electronic form here. If you are also submitting a hard copy, please deliver original artwork to the Department of Mexican American & Latina/o Studies (MALS) office on the second floor of the Gordon-White Building (GWB 2.102).

For further information, please contact Michael Lopez michael.lopez@austin.utexas.edu.

 

 

2025-2026 Winners

2024-2025 Winners