MOJA Arts Festival opens juried exhibition submissions ahead of September Charleston event

Artists seeking a place in the 2026 MOJA Arts Festival Juried Art Exhibition have until Aug. 11, 2026, to submit work. MOJA ARTS and the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs are producing the festival, which is scheduled in Charleston from Sept. 24 through Oct. 1.

The call for exhibition submissions creates a near-term public participation deadline ahead of the festival’s fall program. The application information identifies the juried exhibition as part of the 2026 festival, rather than a separate event.

Four cultural focus areas

Organizers say the 2026 festival will highlight Barbados, Gullah Geechee, Jamaica and Sierra Leone. Those four featured cultural traditions or places frame the program planned for the eight-day festival.

The festival presents music, food and artisans in addition to its visual-art component. Its stated focus is Charleston’s cultural and historical connection to the global Black experience, placing the exhibition within a broader cultural program.

For the city cultural-affairs office and MOJA ARTS, the exhibition submission period is a way for artists to seek participation in a festival built around those connections and the four 2026 focus areas.

What is known about the organizers

The 2026 event is produced jointly by MOJA ARTS and the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs. MOJA Arts describes itself as a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

The partnership links a nonprofit arts organizer and a municipal cultural-affairs office for the festival. The available festival information identifies the organizations producing the event but does not provide additional details about funding for the juried exhibition.

Deadline precedes festival opening

The Aug. 11 deadline comes before the festival’s scheduled Sept. 24 opening. It is the next specified date for people interested in the juried art exhibition, followed by the Sept. 24-Oct. 1 festival run.

Available application information does not state how many artists will be selected for the exhibition. It also does not say whether an exhibition venue or awards have been finalized. The approved information does not provide a submission cost or artist eligibility criteria.

While those details remain unspecified, the announced schedule establishes the immediate timeline: submissions are due Aug. 11, and the wider MOJA Arts Festival is scheduled to begin Sept. 24 in Charleston.