Nevada County, CA — Artists are invited to participate in a unique, art-forward community event, Hearts on Fire: Show Your Love, Be Wildfire-Ready. We are seeking artwork that helps our community understand what it truly means to live with wildfire—and to do so with courage, creativity, honesty, and responsibility.
ABOUT THE EVENT
This free, immersive, art-forward evening celebrates love for our neighborhoods, Firewise Communities, and wildfire resilience. The event will feature visual art, live music, interactive installations, a glass-blowing demonstration, a live auction, food, and inspirational talks. The evening also includes a special CHIRP / Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan exhibit celebrating cultural fire.
WHAT WE WANT THE ART TO EXPRESS
Your work should engage with at least one of these five themes:
Love as a Verb: Protecting What We Cherish
Art that shows why we prepare – love of home, land, people, and place.
Emotional connection, devotion, meaning, motivation.
Living With Fire: Honesty, Adaptation, Acceptance
Art that looks directly at wildfire as part of our environment.
Cultural burning, prescribed fire, fire adapted plants and ecosystems, fire adapted wildlife, fire adapted communities, fire behavior and cycles, complexity, truth-telling.
Do the Work: Preparedness, Action, Responsibility
Art that visualizes readiness – wildfire ready homes, wildfire ready and resilient landscaping and lands, wildfire ready evacuation routes. (Home hardening, defensible space, roadside clearing, evacuation planning).
Urgency without panic. Personal responsibility. Action as empowerment.
Stronger Together: Fire-Adapted Communities
Art that celebrates neighbors helping neighbors – alerts, teamwork, communication, shared responsibility.
Community as resilience.
Renewal & Resilience: What Comes After Fire
Art that expresses regrowth, recovery, regeneration, and hope.
Landscapes that survive and thrive. Landscapes healed. People transformed. Futures re-imagined.
Artists are invited to submit art by January 26th. That’s not very far away but the interpretation of the themes can be broad. Interpret them literally, symbolically, abstractly, playfully, emotionally, or conceptually.
KEY DATES
Submission Deadline: Monday, January 26, 2026
Artist Notification: Friday, February 6, 2026
Artwork Drop-Off: February 10–11, 2026
Installation: February 12, 2026
Event & Exhibit: February 13, 2026 – Miners Foundry, Nevada City
HOW TO SUBMIT
Submit artwork using this form.
Artists may submit up to three (3) pieces. All visual art mediums are welcome. Artwork may be submitted for exhibit only, donation to the live auction, or for sale at the artist’s asking price, with a commission benefiting the Wildfire Ready Coalition of Nevada County. Proceeds from the live auction and meal tickets support wildfire preparedness and community education.
ABOUT THE WILDFIRE READY COALITION OF NEVADA COUNTY
The Wildfire Ready Coalition of Nevada County is a volunteer-driven nonprofit empowering neighborhoods through wildfire education, Firewise Community support, and collaborative preparedness strategies. The Coalition’s mission is to move communities from awareness to action.