The Best of the Bayou Festival is seeking artists to design a poster for the inaugural event to be held in downtown Houma in September. The contest will be open to professional and amateur artists, ages 16 and older, born or living in Terrebonne, Lafourche and surrounding bayou parishes.

“We knew early on that there would be a poster to represent the festival, like you see for world-renowned festivals such as Jazz Fest and Festival Internationale and like what Downtown on the Bayou once had,” said Festival Manager Lori Toups Benoit. “When it came to figuring out how to proceed with the poster, we decided a contest was our best option, in order to give all of our local artists a fair opportunity to create the inaugural design.”

The general criteria of the contest states the design shall be of professional quality with a theme that visually demonstrates and/or embodies the spirit of the inaugural Best of the Bayou Festival.

There are no specific guidelines for this theme, only that it must be an original artistic interpretation of the best aspects of the bayou — be it the music or food, natural habitat, or colorful history and culture of Louisiana’s Bayou Region or a combination of them all.

The artwork can be abstract; use of the festival logo is not required, and the “Best of the Bayou” words or festival dates and location should not be included on the design. Copyrighted characters, clip art or any other copyrighted images will not be accepted. All entries must be original works of art and not previously displayed or sold to the public.

Various mediums and types of art are welcome in the contest. Entries must be a 16-by-20 painting on canvas or a 16-by-20, 600 DPI or vector-based digital file or hard print supported by computer applications for scaling and possible reproduction in festival marketing materials.

Deadline for submissions is June 15 at 4 p.m.

The winning design will be chosen by a volunteer panel of artists (non-participants), art and design professionals, and event planners. The winning artist will receive a cash prize of $500.

Best of the Bayou plans to auction the winning entry and display all others in a special gallery at the festival Sept. 29 and 30.

For complete details on the Best of the Bayou Festival poster contest, visit www.bestofthebayou.org or call 985-876-5600 or email festival@houmachamber.com.