Southern artists have a lucrative reason to mark November 1 on their calendars. ArtFields, the South Carolina festival that turns the small town of Lake City into a town-wide gallery each spring, has opened applications for its 2027 edition. Now in its 15th year, the festival invites emerging and established artists living in twelve Southeastern states — from Alabama to West Virginia — to submit one two- or three-dimensional work to its juried competition. Around 400 works will be selected for exhibition across the town's storefronts, restaurants and galleries during the festival, which runs April 15 to May 1, 2027. The works compete for more than $100,000 in cash prizes, including a $50,000 grand prize. Entry costs $25. Past editions show the range the festival rewards: recent standouts include Kate Burke's Staring Into the Eyes of the New Ophanim and Risa Hricovsky's porcelain Dissonance, which took a 2025 Merit Award, alongside Nathan Grimes's Holm, Home, Homme. The festival also runs a live portrait contest and plein air painting, keeping the three-week takeover hands-on as well as competitive. For the first time, ArtFields is also soliciting public art proposals during the same window. Artists with ideas for outdoor, large-scale, site-specific installations — projects that need more room than a gallery wall — can propose works for Lake City's streets and public spaces by the same November 1 deadline, with no application fee. Since 2013 the festival has grown from a bold regional experiment into a year-round arts organization, awarding more than $1 million in prize money along the way. The program also includes a live portrait contest and plein air painting, keeping the town's three-week art takeover one of the Southeast's most distinctive open calls.