Your Plate Squared: Celebrating America’s 250th

Your Plate Squared: Celebrating America’s 250th is a community exhibition organized in conjunction with the semiquincentennial of America’s founding. Gathering around food is a part of many holidays in the United States, including Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving . Drawing on these traditions, Your Plate Squared explores the role that food plays in shaping our individual and national identities.

The exhibition features community members’ depictions of a food or recipe they would bring to a cookout, family gathering, block party, or community event. All works measure 6 inches by 6 inches and are exhibited in the Bruce’s Vicki Netter Fitzgerald Gallery. Submissions will be accepted prior to the exhibition’s opening and visitors can create their own pieces in an artmaking section in the exhibition. The Bruce will also collaborate with community partners, including Neighbor to Neighbor, a local food bank, to raise awareness about food scarcity in the region.  To learn about how to submit your own work, please check out the submission guidelines below. We look forward to seeing your plate squared at the Bruce!

Submission Guidelines

In conjunction with the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, the Bruce Museum invites community members to submit depictions of food they would bring to a celebration. We invite submissions created in any two-dimensional medium, including writing.

Submission criteria:

• Art must be original
• No signature may appear on the front of the artwork
• Art must be exactly 6 inches by 6 inches in size and no thicker than 3 inches in depth; pieces cannot weigh more than 1 pound
• Art cannot include toxic or harmful materials
• Each artist is limited to no more than 5 submissions
• Artwork submitted digitally will not be considered
• Each piece must be accompanied by the signed submission form.

Submission period:

Submissions will be accepted from April 11 through August 9, 2026.

All submitted artwork that adheres to the theme will be exhibited in the Bruce Museum’s Vicki Netter Fitzgerald Gallery.

See Your Plate Squared at the Bruce Museum this summer from June 11 to August 23, 2026.