The Sacred Art Prize
The Catholic Art Institute has for the past six years recognized the highest artistry and craftsmen through our sacred art prize competition and exhibition. The Sacred Art Prize has recognized artists from all over the world and reaches a world-wide audience, offering the winners and finalists the ability to showcase and sell their work through a featured gallery on the Catholic Art Institute website.
The Sacred Art Prize was instituted in 2020 to recognize excellence in Catholic sacred art. The competition seeks to recognize, award and promote work that demonstrates a mastery of craftsmanship as well as how to appropriately depict sacred subject matter with a profound theological understanding. The following gallery reflects the jurors selections of works that best fit the Sacred Art Prize prospectus. These works were selected from over 360 submissions from fifteen countries including: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States.
In Spring of 2026, the Catholic Art Institute partnered with the Sacred Art Gallery to provide a physical space to show some of the winners and finalists from the contest. The owner of the gallery Charles Pabst helped jury the work that year and the gallery of finalist can be found here. Regarding the jurying process: The names of the artists are removed from all the submitted works, so the jurors are judging the work blind and the selections are based on merit, according to the prospectus, and not on any other consideration.
The Catholic Art Institute has graciously asked The Sacred Art Gallery to continue their partnership and will have a new exhibition of finalists on display in the Spring of 2027. Here are the important dates:
- Call for Entry Opens: March 16, 2026…can enter here.
- Call Closes: October 20, 2026
- Winners Announced: November 20, 2026