State Art Exhibition Competition

What is the State Art Exhibition Competition?

State Art Exhibition Competition is a Gujarat state scheme of the Sports, Youth and Cultural Activities Department, implemented by the Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi (Gujarat State Academy of Fine Arts). The scheme runs an annual state-level art competition and exhibition, awards cash prizes and certificates, and gives winning art students a continuing monthly scholarship.

According to the Akademi's scheme page, the competition awards 89 prizes with a total value of Rs 2,47,500 each year, across three separate categories. Entries are invited by paid advertisement in Gujarati daily newspapers, judged by panels of subject experts, and the winning works are hung at the gallery in Ravi Shankar Rawal Kala Bhavan in Ahmedabad. The competition has been held annually for decades, and older entry forms on the Akademi site are numbered by edition, such as the 59th state art exhibition.

What the scheme is for

• Give artists working outside the commercial gallery circuit a state-level platform and a citable award.
• Identify talent early by running a dedicated school children's category from class 1 upwards.
• Support art students financially through a small but recurring scholarship rather than a one-off prize alone.

Main features

• Three categories: artists, art institution students, and school children in classes 1 to 10.
• Cash prizes plus certificates, and inclusion in a printed catalogue of prize-winning entries.
• Public exhibition of selected works at Ravi Shankar Rawal Kala Bhavan.
• Monthly scholarship of Rs 1,000 for winning art institution students, funded from the interest on a dedicated corpus.
• Offline application on a prescribed form, submitted to the Akademi.

Who is eligible for the State Art Exhibition Competition?

You can enter if:

• You are an artist resident in Gujarat, working in painting, sculpture, graphic art, applied art or another accepted visual art discipline.
• You are a student of a recognised art institution in Gujarat.
• You are a school child studying in classes 1 to 10 in a school located in Gujarat, and your school forwards your entry.
• Your submission is original work in the format specified in that year's entry form.

You are not eligible if:

• You live outside Gujarat. The scheme is exclusively for residents of the state, and participants from other states cannot apply.
• You are a school student above class 10, since the school children's category stops there. Such a student would need to enter through the art institution students category, and only if enrolled in a recognised art institution.
• You send more entries than the cap allows. An individual artist or art institute student is limited to two entries, and a school to 14 entries from classes 1 to 5 plus 14 from classes 6 to 10.
• Your entry arrives after the closing date given in the newspaper advertisement, or is not on the prescribed form.

There is no income limit, no age limit for the artists category and no caste criterion. The competition is judged on the artwork.

How much benefit does the scheme provide?

Beyond the cash, winners receive:

• A certificate of merit from the Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi.
• Exhibition of the winning work at the Ravi Shankar Rawal Kala Bhavan gallery, which is a public venue in central Ahmedabad.
• Inclusion of the work in the catalogue of prize-winning entries.
• For winning art institution students, a monthly scholarship of Rs 1,000, paid from the interest earned on a dedicated corpus fund.

The Akademi notes that the prize fund is met partly from its own budget and partly from interest on donations made by eminent artists and patrons of the fine arts.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the State Art Exhibition Competition

1. Watch for the call for entries, which the Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi publishes as a paid advertisement in Gujarati daily newspapers and on lalitkalaacademy.gujarat.gov.in.
2. Download the prescribed application form from the Akademi website. There are two separate forms, one for the State Art Exhibition Competition itself and one for the student scholarship.
3. Fill in every mandatory field, including your details in the field of art, your category, and the description of the submitted work. Attach photographs or colour slides of the work, self-attested where the form asks for it.
4. Attach the supporting documents; identity proof, Gujarat residence proof, bonafide certificate for students, school declaration for group entries, and bank account details.
5. Submit the signed form with the artwork or its images to the Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi at Ravi Shankar Rawal Kala Bhavan, opposite Bhaikaka Bhavan, Law Garden, Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad 380006, before the closing date in the advertisement.
6. Ask for a receipt or acknowledgement from the officer at the Akademi who accepts your submission, and keep it until the results are declared.

Schools submitting on behalf of pupils should collate the entries, cap them at 14 from classes 1 to 5 and 14 from classes 6 to 10, and forward the set under a single covering declaration on school letterhead.

How are the winners chosen?

Entries under the State Art Exhibition Competition are assessed by panels of field-specific experts appointed for each discipline. The panels judge on artistic merit, originality and overall quality of the work, and their selection determines both the prize list and the works hung in the exhibition. There is no public voting element and no marks-based formula published.

Results are communicated to winners and the selected works go on display at the Ravi Shankar Rawal Kala Bhavan gallery, with the prize-winning entries printed in a catalogue.

How to claim the Rs 1,000 monthly scholarship

The scholarship is not a separate open competition. It is available to students of art institutions who have won a prize in the competition.

1. Win a prize in the art institution students category.
2. Fill the separate scholarship form published on the Akademi website.
3. Attach proof of current enrolment at the recognised art institution and your bank account details.
4. Submit the form to the Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi at the Ahmedabad address.

The scholarship is Rs 1,000 per month, funded from the interest on a dedicated corpus fund rather than from the annual prize allocation.

Why entries get rejected

• Residence outside Gujarat, which is an absolute bar.
• Entry cap exceeded — more than two works from one artist or art student, or more than 14 works per school from either class group.
• Late submission after the date printed in the newspaper advertisement.
• Wrong form or a form missing the mandatory career and category details.
• Missing bonafide certificate for a student entry, so the category cannot be verified.
• Work outside the accepted disciplines listed for that year.
• No bank details, which does not affect judging but delays payment of the prize.

Key dates

State Art Exhibition Competition has no fixed calendar date. The Akademi announces each edition through paid newspaper advertisements, and the closing date is set in that advertisement. Anyone planning to enter should check lalitkalaacademy.gujarat.gov.in periodically and keep the prescribed form and photographs of recent work ready, because the window between the advertisement and the closing date is usually short.

Help and contact

• Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi, Ravi Shankar Rawal Kala Bhavan, opposite Bhaikaka Bhavan, Law Garden, Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad 380006.
• Phone: 079-26425562 and 079-26562558.
• Email: igslka@gmail.com
• Website: lalitkalaacademy.gujarat.gov.in

There is no entry fee payable to any agent, and the forms are free to download from the Akademi website.