14 Art Scholarships and Deadlines Every High School Artist Should Know This Fall

Every fall, I hear some version of the same sentence from a parent: "We didn't even know about it until the deadline had passed."

After 36 years of teaching high school art and guiding students into competitive BFA programs, I can tell you it's rarely a talent problem. It's a timing problem. The biggest art scholarships and competitions for teens are scattered across a dozen websites, each with its own rules, age limits, and deadlines. And the most important ones cluster in a few short weeks of the fall, right when seniors are also juggling college applications. I know it is very stressful trying to navigate all of this alone. I hate to see parents and students leaving well deserved money on the table.

So I put every one of them in one place.

Download the free 2026–27 Art Scholarship Calendar →

I created a printable guide to fourteen national scholarships, competitions, and portfolio events for high school artists, in deadline order, with a direct link to each official page. Here's a preview of what's inside, and why this school year's calendar matters more than you might think. These are for Fall 2026 and Winter 2027 scholarship deadlines.

The awards are real money

These aren't participation ribbons. A few of the numbers on this year's calendar:

• $45,000+ for the national winner of Doodle for Google, plus a $50,000 technology package for their school

• $12,500 for a Scholastic Art & Writing Gold Medal Portfolio

• Up to $10,000 from YoungArts, the most prestigious national award a teen visual artist can win

• $10,000 for the winning design in the Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship

And many of these do double duty. A Scholastic Gold Key or a YoungArts award is money, but it's also a line on the Common App that admissions readers recognize instantly. These can be very prestigious and extremely helpful in helping to stand out during the admissions process.

October and December are the real season

If your student is a senior, the next few months are the ones that count. Here are the fall deadlines to put on the family calendar now:

October 6: YoungArts National Arts Competition. For ages 15–18 (grades 10–12), with awards from $250 to $10,000 plus mentorship. The application asks for a cohesive body of work, so students who have developed a sustained investigation have a real advantage.

October 24: National Portfolio Day, New York. Not a scholarship, but it's where merit scholarships get set in motion. Students show their work to admissions reps from dozens of art colleges in a single afternoon, for free, at the Javits Center. I will personally be at the event guiding my Art Portfolio Prep students and speaking with admissions representatives I have not met yet. (There are events in about 25 cities this fall, plus online sessions through the winter.)

October 27: NSHSS Visual Arts Scholarship. Six $2,000 awards for National Society of High School Scholars members.

December 1 – January 4: Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The one every art teacher knows. Deadlines vary by region, so look yours up early. Seniors can enter the Art Portfolio category, and colleges add their own money on top. Pratt, for example, adds $3,000 a year for a Portfolio Gold Medal.

December 17: Doodle for Google. This year's theme is "I am grateful for…" High schoolers compete only against grades 10–12, and it's as much a design brief as an art contest, which makes it great practice for future illustration and design majors.

The calendar also covers the Anthony Quinn Foundation Scholarship, which pays up to $2,500 toward a pre-college or summer arts program. For a sophomore or junior, a funded summer intensive is one of the best portfolio-building investments there is.

Winter and spring: room for younger students

Not a senior? The second half of the year is full of opportunities that are perfect for sophomores and juniors building a track record: the Sony World Photography Youth Competition, the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt National High School Design Competition, the VFW Patriotic Art Contest, the Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest, and the Congressional Art Competition, where each district's winning piece hangs in the U.S. Capitol for a year. Because every district picks its own winner, the odds are far better than a national open call.

The calendar also includes two opportunities that run through the school rather than the student alone, and a few colleges that set aside scholarships specifically for National Art Honor Society members. Those are worth a conversation with your art department this month.

The biggest scholarship isn't on the list

Here's what I most want families to understand.

The competitions above are worth pursuing, but the largest sums a young artist will ever earn from their work come from the colleges themselves. Nearly every art and design school, including Pratt, RISD, MICA, SAIC, Parsons, SCAD, and Ringling, awards merit scholarships at the point of admission. At most of them, the portfolio carries more weight than grades or test scores. Pratt says it plainly: merit scholarships for high school applicants are based on GPA and portfolio only.

In other words, the portfolio your student submits for admission is the scholarship application. Those awards commonly range from a few thousand dollars to full tuition, renewable for four years.

I would LOVE to help your creative teen with creating their high quality art portfolio.

What every one of these rewards

When I look across all fourteen opportunities, the judges are looking for the same thing admissions readers are: a portfolio that shows how a student thinks. Work that shows them observing, experimenting, taking creative risks, developing an idea, and refining it. Not just a collection of finished pieces, but evidence of a young artist with something to say.

That's good news, because it's something a student can build on purpose, starting now. If you would like to know more about ART PORTFOLIO PREP please click the link and book a free 20 minute consultation with me to discuss and ask any questions you may have.

Get the Free Art Scholarship Calendar

The 2026–27 Art Scholarship Calendar gives you every deadline in order, what each award is worth, who's eligible, and a direct link to each official page, all in one printable guide. Print it, post it on the fridge, and share it with your student's art teacher.

Download the free Art Scholarship Calendar

And if your student is getting ready for BFA applications, AP Studio Art, or any of the awards on this list, I'd love to help. ART PORTFOLIO PREP is Online Studio Arts' program for high school students who want to build a portfolio that shows how they think as an artist.