I’ve been running art contests for a couple years now, and I frequently get emails from people wondering why they can’t see who won. The answer is simple: we never show them.
We don’t show the winners because we don’t need to. We have our own way of judging the contest and no reason to do it any other way. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that there are many ways to judge art contests (and competitions, in general.) Here are some of the most common ones:
1. Most Votes Wins
2. Short List of Winners Selected By Committee
3. Long List of Winners Chosen By Voters
4. Judges Choose Winners In A Blind Contest
Let’s take a look at each of these methods and how they work.
Didn’t you receive a copy of your award certificate? If so, then you can see the results.
Didn’t you receive an email saying that your entry did not place in the contest? If so, then you must have entered the wrong URL for your entry when submitting it. Please resubmit it with the correct URL and it will appear on the website.
Troubleshooting Guide:
If the entry is not visible after resubmission, then it’s likely that the art contest sponsors have not posted the winners online yet. It may take several days for them to do so, or in some cases (such as contests in our own gallery) they may not decide to post winners at all.
This could happen for any number of reasons. For instance:
– The contest website might not be able to handle very long URLs without breaking them up into multiple entries; in this case, please use a shorter name for the artwork.
– You may have uploaded the wrong file type; if so, please re-upload using a different file type (see FAQ
Art contests are a necessary part of being an artist, but they are also a mystery. How will I know if I won? What prizes are available? Where is the next contest that will accept my work?
If you’ve been following this blog, you already know about the current status of art contests. If you haven’t been following this blog, here’s what you need to know:
The list of art contests is updated as we find out about them, so check back often. Also, we post about new art contests every weekday.
In addition to posting notices about new and past art contests, we provide tips for artists and writers on how to increase your odds of winning in any contest you enter. You’ll also find resources like books and magazines devoted to helping artists succeed.
The site is updated frequently with the latest news in our arts category, so check back often.
Art Contests News is an extension of the Arts & Contest Updates Blog by Amy Costello. If you have questions or comments or just want to drop me a line feel free to do so via the contact page on this site or email me directly at [email protected] You can also follow us on Twitter @ArtsContestNews.*
Another thing you can do to improve your chances of winning contests is to submit different pieces of art to different contests. The reason for this is because more than one judge will be grading your work. It is possible that your work may be disqualified by one judge for not being up to their standards, but then the other judges might look at it and see that it would be a great piece for their contest.
Trying to submit your work to as many contests as you can will give you more of a chance of winning. There are over 6,000 art contests on The Art Calendar each year, so you have plenty of options to choose from!
When you submit a project to a contest, you are basically submitting it to the public. If you win, your project will be shown in public, and that’s the point of entering a contest. Most contests allow you to see your entries during the judging period so that you can understand what judges and other entrants are saying about your work.
TIP
What is a magazine?
Some people see magazines as a genre, or a medium, or both. Others see them as just one of many types of media that fall under the larger umbrella of publishing. The latter is closer to my view and that of many other people. We see magazines as part of a continuum made up of newspapers and books and online content, along with advertising and marketing materials, corporate communications, academic journals, and so on.
Trying to define what is an art magazine can be quite difficult because there’s so much gray area between the different types of media. For example, are all art stories written for newspapers expected to have photos in them? Are all articles in art magazines expected to have illustrations? What about cover art? That’s where the gray areas come into play.
The bottom line for me is that first we must understand what our goals are and then design our processes based upon those goals. If our goal is to create a print publication that has a certain number of pages and a certain price point and comes out on a certain schedule and if part of our process includes identifying potential featured artists before we begin publishing then I think it makes sense to use contests as one method for making these decisions.”
Many people like art, not just me. It is a very good thing to do, to make art. And it is also very good to show the art to other people. I am here to talk about how to do that.
