Images from last year’s annual Jurgen contest are showing on the Cabell Screen through Jan. 31, 2025.

This exhibit showcases comic arts from a VCU Libraries-sponsored contest in the last academic year. These student artists brought wit, imagination and passion to the challenge of creating comics on the topic of censorship and self-censorship. This exhibit celebrates artists’ talents and contributions to the third annual Jurgen Comics Contest.  More contest artwork may be viewed on VCU Scholars Compass.

Reflected in the Cabell Screen exhibit, the 2023-24 year contest prompt was for students to respond imaginatively to historical incidents of art censorship. Artists created a single-page, multi-panel comic telling a story centered on a specific episode of seizure or censorship of visual art, book, music or film.

The fourth annual contest is underway with entries due by Jan. 31. The 2024-25 contest asks students to imagine a comic book centered around the suppression or censorship of visual art, books, music, film or performance at a particular historical moment. Departing from previous years’ requirements of full comic spreads, artists will create only the cover art. The cover art must tell a story centered on a specific episode of seizure or censorship of visual art, book, music or film. Examples of such incidents may be found on the contest website.

The Jurgen Banned Art Comics Contest is envisioned as an annual student competition dedicated to telling the story of banned art – books, music, film and more – and encouraging discussion of the complex relationship between art and society. The contest is sponsored by VCU Libraries with generous support from donors.

Categories Comic Arts, Student Work