Professional and self-taught artists with a passion for native plants have until March 30 to submit their handcrafted or handmade work to a nationwide, community art contest celebrating the often overlooked wildlife.
In its third year, PlantArte Native Plant Art Contest and Exhibit is a partnership of Arte Sana and GreenLatinos, two Latino-led nonprofits based in Texas, with the goal to use art to help prevent plant-awareness disparity, which is the human tendency to overlook or ignore plants that leads to less support for conservation
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The contest “celebrates native plants through botanical art to: build awareness of the importance of native plants; promote native plant advocacy by empowering diverse communities to support conservation and restoration efforts; and honor the ancestral roots and shared ecoregions that connect plants and people,” organizers said.
Artists can submit up to two works for the nonrefundable fee per artist of $10, 100% of which will go to contest expenses and creating the art gallery exhibit. Fill out separate forms for each submission. Deadline midnight, CDT, March 30. Organizers ask artists to read the PlantArte rules and guidelines before submitting.
Pay online via Arte Sana’s PayPal donation account or mail a check to be received before March 30 to Arte Sana, P.O. Box 1334, Dripping Springs, TX 78620.
A contest fee waiver is available for teen students or anyone who may need it to participate. Contact Laura Zárate, Arte Sana director and PlantArte coordinator, at plant.gente@gmail.com.
Handmade refers to items that are crafted entirely by hand, using no machinery or automation in the production process, and handcrafted items are made by hand using some tools or machinery. Organizers gave as examples a wood burner or a tattoo machine used to replicate an original design drawn by hand. Only hand embroidery is acceptable.
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Judges will score the work on the quality, design, creativity, originality and overall clarity of the art submitted under the following contest categories:
- Endangered plants — Focus on either threatened or endangered plants.
- Wildflowers.
- Resilience — Focus on freeze and drought-resistant native plants.
- Plants & critters — Focus on native plants benefitting pollinators and wildlife.
- Plants of my people — Focus on native plants/herbs with personal or historical significance.
- Plants beyond borders — Transboundary native plants of neighboring lands.
The online art exhibit featuring the highest-rated submissions is to debut during National Native Plant Month in April.
Arte Sana (art heals) is a national Latina-led nonprofit based in Texas originally founded in 2001 to help bridge the gaps in victim assistance for Spanish speaking survivors of sexual violence. Arte Sana launched the Plants & People, or Plantas y Gente, initiative in 2022, and held the first art contest in 2024 in collaboration with local, state, and national native plant and environmental groups.
The first year of the Texas-born contest saw work from artists in Arizona, Florida and Oklahoma. In 2025, 60% of the art submissions came from Texas and the rest from states like Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York. Visit the 2025 PlantArte exhibit launched April 22, Earth Day, to see last year’s submissions.
This year’s contest is a partnership of Arte Sana and GreenLatinos, a national nonprofit of Latino leaders confronting environmental issues in the Latino community. Additional support is provided by Native Plant Society of Texas, Latino Outdoors, Hill Country Conservancy, Biodiversity Works, Defenders of Wildlife, and Native American Seed.
