Dr. Jerry Hiura Next Gen Visual Artist Award

The Dr. Jerry Hiura Next Gen Visual Artist Award honors Dr. Jerry’s passions through a scholarship that celebrates young visionary artists and supports their artistic practice and goals as they pursue higher education.

Application

The Dr. Jerry Hiura Next Gen Visual Artist Award is open to high school students in Santa Clara County.

Application Deadline: February 27, 2026
Winners Announced: May 28, 2026
Award Amount: 1st prize: $3,000, 2nd / 3rd prizes: $1,000 each

Scholarship Abstract

Theme: "Trust the Process" 
Prompt: Embrace the adventure of trying something new, and Trust the Process of your artistic innovation. Craft a work of art that emphasizes how you create and celebrates your journey as an artist. Explore how your art-making process reflects your unique identity and inspires others to embrace their creativity.

Criteria

• Open media, artwork, in response to the theme above
• Only one submission per student
• Eligible students must be of high school age and live in Santa Clara County

Application Submission Requirements

Submit the requirements below through the application page. 

A completed submission form with:

• Your name 
• High school name
• Teacher Name
• Title of work
• Description of work submitted (medium, dimensions in inches)
• An artist’s statement: The statement should be 200 words or less, describing who you are, what you make, and why you make it. The statement is a stand-in for you, the artist, talking to someone about your work in a way that adds to their understanding and experience of viewing that work. Highlight how your work connects to the theme of Trust the Process.
• A high-quality image of your artwork in .jpg or .png format 
• 1200 x 1800 px, minimum size 
• Maximum of three views 

Application Now Closed.

Need art materials?

Students in need of materials to enter the Dr. Jerry Hiura Next Gen Visual Artists Award are invited to contact us at education@sjmusart.org.

Jurors

Dave Werner

Dave Werner is the Lead Designer for the Emmy award winning Character Animator team at Adobe in California. His past projects include the Okaydave website, indie video game Atmosphir, and Extraneous Lyrics video series. He posts regular cartoons, music videos, and tutorials to his Okay Samurai YouTube channel. Dave's work has been featured by Wired, The Verge, Entertainment Weekly, TechCrunch, Kotaku, College Humor, and Sesame Street. 

Binh Danh

Binh Danh reimagines traditional photographic techniques to explore history, identity, and place. He is known for his contemporary daguerreotypes of national parks, which create reflective images that invite viewers to see themselves within the American landscape. His work is held in major collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, SFMOMA, the de Young, the Asian Art Museum, and the San José Museum of Art. In 2023, his book Binh Danh: The Enigma of Belonging became the first recipient of the Minami Book Grant for Asian American Visual Artists from Radius Books. He is also an associate professor of art at San José State University. 

binhdanh.com • Instagram: binhtdanh
Binh Danh: The Enigma of Belonging ($65)

Imin Yeh

Imin Yeh is a project-based artist working with sculpture, installation, artist publication and multiples, and participatory projects. Her diverse practice is unified by both the social history and the materiality of paper and print.  

She has received support from the Heinz Foundation, Women Studio Workshop, and the Fleishhacker Foundation. She is the 2026 Contemporary Art Fellow at the University of Alabama. Recent Exhibitions include, a solo exhibition at the University of Alabama, Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, and Grizzly Grizzly (PA), and group exhibitions at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (DC), MOCA Jacksonville (FL) and Chautauqua Institute (NY). Imin’s work is collected at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Bainbridge Museum of Art, and San Jose Museum of Art. Her artist publications are collected in dozens of academic and institutional libraries, including Stanford Library, Harvard Library, Rochester Institute of Technology and VCU Library.

She holds a BA- Art History and BS Art from the University of Wisconsin Madison, a MFA from California College of the Arts. She is an Associate Professor and Director of Foundational Studies at Carnegie Mellon University.

About Dr. Jerry Hiura

The San José Museum of Art Dr. Jerry Hiura Next Gen Visual Artist Award was created in honor of former Trustee Dr. Jerry Hiura, known affectionately as “Dr. Jerry,” a gifted individual dedicated to service, community, and the arts. A passionate advocate for multi-cultural arts, he served as chair of San José's Arts Commission and as president of the Arts Council of Silicon Valley. Dr. Jerry’s commitment towards advancing the local arts community in San José also included co-founding the Contemporary Asian Theater Scene (CATS), the Japantown Community Congress of San José (JCCsj) and establishing the Three Japantown Landmarks Public Arts projects andIkoinoba, quiet resting places, throughout Japantown. As a board member for Chopsticks Alley Art, he furthered the creative dialogue between Japanese and Vietnamese American art and history. Dr. Jerry’s countless contributions were recognized Statewide when he was appointed in 2002 by Governor Gray Davis to the California State Arts Council, where he served as vice-chair.

Dr. Jerry and his wife, fellow Trustee Lucia Cha, joined the Board of Trustees of the San José Museum of Art (SJMA) in 2017. He served on the Executive Committee and was a key partner in SJMA’s engagement initiatives with San José’s Vietnamese community.

As a dedicated artist himself, Dr. Jerry explored his creative endeavors inexpressive forms. His paintings and drawings utilized a variety of media, including oils, watercolor, and acrylics – and ranged from whimsical topics to portraiture. As an author, poet, and editor, he published The Hawk's Well in 1986, a unique collection of Japanese American art and literature.

Enjoy These Submissions from the 2026 Application Period