photo by: Kali Deno

This year's grant award winners Alicia Kelly and Kali Deno's final project, a pop-up book of the Wakarusa wetlands, includes digital light and sound.

A festival dedicated to environmentally conscious storytelling is holding an art grant competition inspired by Douglas County’s Open Space Plan.

The Open Space Plan is a county project to work with public, private and community partners on shared priorities for future land use and preservation.

The competition, called Showcasing Open Spaces through Accessible Adventure, calls for artists to apply for grants of $1,500-$2,000 to explore the “open lands” of Douglas County and then create a work of art about their adventure, according to a news release from festival organizers. The artwork can be in any format, such as video, photography, performance, prose or other.

Applicants are also encouraged to collaborate with agritourism sites in Douglas County to raise awareness of the financial and environmental challenges faced by local farmers.

This is the second year for the grant competition. The first competition awarded $12,000 in total to seven artist-adventurer teams. This year, Outdoors Unscripted received $25,000 in grant funds from the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council to fund the program, $18,000 of which will go directly toward the grants.

Applications for the competition are due Jan. 1, 2025 at midnight, and the winning projects will be presented to the public at the Outdoors Unscripted Festival events in September 2025.