NEOLAiA Art Exhibition

Call for Submissions: NEOLAiA Art Exhibition

The Šiaulių valstybinė kolegija / Higher Education Institution, as a member of the NEOLAiA alliance, is launching this call for submissions for its students to participate in the NEOLAiA Art Exhibition. This event celebrates creativity, diversity, and the power of art to connect members of the NEOLAiA community across borders.  

The selected artworks will be exhibited at all nine partner universities to showcase our cities, regions, universities, and, most importantly, the talents and visions of our student communities.

The partner institutions in NEOLAiA are as follows:

· University of Ostrava (Czech Republic)
· Bielefeld University (Germany)
· University of Jaén (Spain)
· University of Nicosia (Cyprus)
· Örebro University (Sweden)
· University of Salerno (Italy)
· “Ştefan Cel Mare” University of Suceava (Romania)
· University of Tours (France)
· Šiaulių valstybinė kolegija / Higher Education Institution (Lithuania)

Who can participate?

This call is open to all students enrolled at the Šiaulių valstybinė kolegija / Higher Education Institution in the academic year 2025-2026. No prior experience or professional background in art is required—we welcome contributions by both budding and experienced artists.

Theme of the exhibition

Participants are invited to explore and interpret the essence of your university, region, city, and/or student life. Highlight the connections, cultures, and experiences that shape your everyday environment and identity as part of the NEOLAiA community.

Accepted forms of art

All submissions must be in digital format: a digital scan or photograph of the original piece:

  • Painting & Drawing
  • Photography
  • Poetry
  • Mixed Media & Digital Art
  • Textile Art
  • Sculpture & Ceramics
  • Calligraphy 

If you are unsure whether your artwork is acceptable, do not hesitate to contact:

Submission guidelines:

  1. The artwork must be original.
  2. Each participant may submit up to two artworks.
  3. Each file must be in high-resolution digital format (max. 100MB).
  4. Include a brief description of each piece (max. 250 characters).

Submission deadline: 2026-01-31

How to submit:

Step 1: Prepare your artwork in accordance with the guidelines above.

Step 2: Fill out the submission form. Use the QR code or the link: https://forms.gle/eDyTHTpsgtbdAfuY9   

Step 3: Upload your file through the submission form.

Selection process:

A committee formed by members of the Student Advisory Group (SAG) of the NEOLAiA alliance at each University will review the submissions sent to their University. Three artworks will be selected on the basis of their creativity, originality, and alignment with the theme. Finalists will be notified via e-mail by ŠVK representative.  

Prizes:

There will be 3 prizes awarded by each NEOLAiA partner to the three works of art selected by the SAG from each university. The prizes will be:

1st prize: (value equivalent to 300€)

2nd prize: (value equivalent to 200€)

3rd prize (value equivalent to 100€)

 

Copyright

Legal Foundations and Safeguards

Rights:

By submitting their work, participants acknowledge and accept the terms and conditions of the competition. In doing so, they confirm that:

  1. Copyrights are respected, and the photos are free from third-party rights.
  2. The depiction of individuals does not violate personal rights.

Regarding Point 1:

Participants guarantee that they hold all rights to the submitted photos and will only submit images they have personally taken. By taking part in the contest, participants also confirm that they will not submit material that violates legal regulations. Any unlawful content is strictly prohibited, particularly sexist, racist, antisemitic, or inhumane content or depictions.

If third parties assert claims due to violations of their rights, the participant shall indemnify the partner universities of NEOLAiA against any such claims. The sole responsibility for the content (images, files, texts, etc.) lies with the creator of the submitted images.

Regarding Point 2:

If the image contains recognizable individuals who are the main subject of the photo, they must consent to its publication.

Photographed individuals have the so-called "right to their own image." This right does not apply if people appear as incidental elements in a landscape or another location. A person is considered an incidental element when their presence is so subordinate to the environment that the image’s overall character would remain unchanged without them.

Therefore, participants must obtain written consent from the individuals they photograph for the image to be published. A consent form template is available for download. The consent form does not need to be submitted. It serves for your personal protection! However, if your artwork includes recognizable individuals, you are strongly encouraged to keep a signed copy of this form. This helps protect you in case the photographed person later withdraws consent or raises a complaint.

Participants guarantee that any required consents have been obtained through the signing of a consent form. If individuals appearing in the photographs claim a violation of their right to their own image, the participant shall indemnify the partner universities of NEOLAiA against such claims as well.

Usage Rights:

  1. The photographs selected in the competition are intended to be used in an onsite exhibition. Therefore, by accepting the participation conditions, participants grant the all university members of NEOLAiA unrestricted, non-exclusive rights to use the submitted images for the competition’s resulting exhibition and related activities, including publications, reports, and public relations. This also includes transferring simple usage rights to third parties, such as publishers producing an exhibition catalog.
  2. NEOLAiA wishes to use the photographs of the pieces of art, with credit to the author, for its self-representation. Thus, participants grant NEOLAiA unlimited, non-exclusive usage rights for self-representation in all media, including print and online publications. NEOLAiA is also authorized to transfer these simple usage rights to third parties, such as publishers responsible for producing related publications.
  3. If any partner university of NEOLAiA intends to use the photographs beyond the competition, exhibition, or marketing purposes, the participant will receive an offer to conclude a specific agreement.
  4. All other rights remain with the creator. NEOLAiA will strive to credit photographers when using their images.
  5. The photographs that are not selected for the Exhibition will be deleted from any repository after the selection process has been finished.

Granting of Rights:

The granting of rights includes the right to edit and applies to all forms of use, particularly reproduction on NEOLAiA’s website and publication in printed materials. Editing rights include resizing and cropping. None of the university partners in NEOLAiA will distribute images for commercial use (no sale, licensing, or monetisation of artworks will occur).

National legislation will be applied alongside the GDPR to address specific legal requirements and provisions within each member state.

All partner Universities in NEOLAiA are responsible for NEOLAiA’s website.

Šiaulių valstybinė kolegija / Higher Education Institution is data controller. Data processing is conducted for participation in the NEOLAiA Art Exhibition competition. Participants' names and photographs will be provided to the jury and temporarily made accessible in an online voting process. When images are used further, only the participant’s name (first and last) will be published as a copyright/source credit. No additional participant data will be shared with third parties.

The legal basis for processing this data is the participant’s consent under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR or EU Regulation 2016/679) of the European Parliament.

All personal data is stored on specially secured systems at Šiaulių valstybinė kolegija / Higher Education Institution. Contact details are stored to allow future communication with participants.

Participants may exercise their GDPR rights (access, rectification, deletion, restriction of processing, withdrawal of consent, objection, data portability) by contacting the data controller, Šiaulių valstybinė kolegija / Higher Education Institution at email: neolaia@svako.lt

Legal Recourse:

Legal recourse is excluded.

Additional Information:

The University members of the NEOLAiA Alliance do not guarantee the publication of submitted photos. If any provision of these participation conditions is invalid or unenforceable, the validity of the remaining conditions remains unaffected.

If participants violate any of the above terms, they will unfortunately be disqualified from the competition.

Photos that have already been published or submitted to another photography competition may not be entered.

All information in Lithuanian

All information in English

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