The widely accepted historic idea of the 1621 three-day harvest feast celebrated between the Plymouth colonist settlers and the indigenous Wampanoag people of what is now Massachusetts, became Thanksgiving as the USA grew to be almost entirely non-indigenous immigrants. Immigrant families contributed significant aspects cultural heritage and tradition woven as the vibrant, multi-faceted, often troubled, fabric of American society. A few succeeded, but many immigrant groups struggled for social acceptance their stories becoming the vignettes and elements describing, depicting and comprising the wide-ranging non-indigenous immigrant diaspora.

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          OCCCA invites all artists to create, express, explore and address the theme of US - Immigrant Diaspora in the USA through compelling visual art viewpoints of both historic and/or current immigrant contributions, issues and aspects brought on by the diaspora historically impacting and currently facing established, emergent and new immigrant communities and individuals. All media are sought and encouraged including painting, mixed media, three-dimensional art, installation, looped video, new media, performance and experimental artwork. - Jeffrey Frisch

Our juror:
          Peter Frank is a New York-born, Los Angeles-based art critic, historian, and curator with a career going back more than half a century. He has served as Senior Curator at the Riverside [CA] Art Museum (2005-2010) and has guest-curated exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1981), El Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (2002), the Kunstmuseum Wilhelm-Morgner-Haus in Soest, Germany (2014), the Center for Inter-American Relations (1978), the Alternative Museum (1988), Franklin Furnace Archive (1978, 1980), and the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (1984), among many institutions and commercial galleries. He has realized projects for Documenta (1977) and the Biennale de Venezia (2007). Frank has written extensively for Art in America, ARTnews, artillery, and Whitehot Magazine, and other periodicals (including several he edited) and served as art critic for The SoHo Weekly News (1973-76), The Village Voice (1977-79), and LA Weekly (1986-2008). Numerous exhibition monographs and catalogues feature his essays, and he has published several books, including Something Else Press: An Annotated Bibliography (1983), New, Used & Improved: Art for the '80s (with Michael McKenzie,1987) and Wayne Thiebaud: A Radical Realism (2025). He has lectured and taught at universities domestically and abroad. Frank is also a published poet (The Travelogues, 1982).

Entry deadline: May 30, 2026
Notification of accepted entries: June 8, 2026. 
Delivery of Artwork by June 27, 2026
Pickup of artwork after the exhibition: Saturday August 22, 2026 between 5-7 p.m. and Sunday August 23, 2026 between 12:00-3:00 p.m. 
Exhibition opens July 11, 2026
Second reception August 1, 2026
Upload images of your work as JPGs.