Cultural arts occur whenever creative people decide to artistically enhance what is around them: when weaving a basket design, for example, or when adding decor to an article of clothing to individualize it for the wearer, or when writing an article to describe a personal experience. AHCL promotes the creativity of our members as part of our education mission, including a competition between our members. The types of artistic endeavors that will be part of our yearly competition are identified by category and defined in a dictionary for our members’ use.
The information required to participate in the 2026 State Cultural Arts competition is provided in the links below. There have been quite a number of changes and refinements to the categories and definitions, so even though you may be very familiar with the Cultural Arts program, we advise reading through both documents to be sure you are up to date. It is very important that the definitions for each category are reviewed by the artist to make sure the entry fits the category so it will not be disqualified at check-in or later by the judges. Everyone wants to avoid the potential for disappointment when an entry is found to be non-compliant!
- 2026 Cultural Arts Categories This is a summarized list of the categories available for submitting craft projects for judging. The bolded text indicates changes from last year’s categories.
- 2026 Cultural Arts Category Dictionary This provides detailed definitions of each craft project category, including specific entry requirements and restrictions. Highlighted text indicates changes from last year’s dictionary.
Check In Forms For Cultural Arts Events
Club CA Check-In Summary Sheet This form is to be filled out by the Club representative responsible for checking their own Club’s Cultural Arts entries in and out of their County CA Event. It should list each entry being submitted by all the members of that Club. That means each of your club’s members could make an entry in a given subcategory, and you may need to make additional pages. However, each member can only enter one item per subcategory. Bring two copies of this completed form to the Cultural Arts Event, one for your club to retain and one for the County to use. Make sure each entry has an entry identification card (see below) attached by the member submitting that entry, and that the entry meets the definition of that category.
County CA Check-In Summary Sheet This form is to be filled out by the County representative responsible for checking their County’s Cultural Arts entries in and out of the State CA Event. It should list each entry that was submitted by Clubs to the County Event and won first place in that subcategory. That means each County can only enter one item per subcategory. Bring two copies of this completed form to the State Conference, one for your County to retain and one for the Conference CA organizers to use. Make sure each entry has an entry identification card (see below) attached by the member submitting that entry, and that the entry meets the definition of that category.
Cultural Arts Entry Identification Card This card should be filled out by the artist because they know best how they produced the entry item they are submitting. Make sure that the entry meets the definition of the category selected and attach the entry card securely to the entry. It’s helpful to describe the item in the definition area of the form so the CA event workers can recognize the item from the description: Sunset landscape; crocheted scarf in reds and blues; yellow paper mâché pig; etc.
Cultural Arts Planning Guides
The additional guidelines below are provided for your information and use as desired in helping plan and conduct a Cultural Arts Event: