10/06/2026
The Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds hears and respects the strong convictions communicated about artificial intelligence and its use in creating art. Those concerns are important to us. A core purpose of the Fair is to celebrate and share the creativity and talents of our community.
This year the winning Fair poster art was selected because of its unique and sweet illustration of the theme, “Apple Pies and Starry Skies” and the overall charm of Fair. We worked to preserve the integrity and creativity of the original artwork and utilized some AI-assisted tools to prepare it for the many mediums and purposes required for Fair marketing and publication.
The artwork was adapted for posters, banners, advertising, social media, programs, signs, merchandise, and other uses. This required resizing, extending backgrounds, adjusting resolution, isolating elements, and adapting layouts. We made the necessary adaptations while remaining faithful to the artist’s original imagery and composition.
We truly respect artists who prefer no AI-assisted tools be used with their artwork. At the same time, the Fair needs the flexibility to use contemporary production tools because of its limited resources and for its many uses. We are guided by the principle -the artist creates the art; the Fair prepares that art for publication and promotion.
To avoid confusion in future contests, we will make this clearer on contest materials - both our commitment to preserving the integrity of the original artwork and that graphic-design and AI-assisted production tools may be used to adapt it for Fair marketing and publication.
For comments or further engagement on this issue, please email: [email protected]
