Eco Arts Awards Rules and Guidelines

There are six categories in which anyone can enter to win cash, prizes, national and international recognition. Each of the six categories has its own panel of expert jurors who will evaluate and select the winners of that particular category. There is an entry fee for each work entered. You may enter as many different works as you wish.

It is important that you read the specific entry criteria for each category to know what format you will need to submit your work in. There will be no refunds or returns if your entry did not meet the format guidelines. You will receive a confirmation email that your entry was successfully received. EAA is not responsible for late, lost, damaged, misdirected, postage due, stolen, and incomplete entries.

You have two options to submit your entry, online via this website, click the ENTER HERE button on the home page or you can MAIL YOUR ENTRY to the following address:

Eco Arts Awards 224 Aurora Drive Asheville, N.C. 28805

Our Early Bird Entry fee is $25 per individual work prior to September 30th, 2011. After that date the normal entry fee is $30 up to our final deadline of November 30th, 2011.

If you have any problems with uploading entries via our online entry form, please contact our webmaster.

No artworks, cd's, photographs or slides will be returned to the entrant. It is your responsibility to make sure that your entry is viewable and listenable. Again, please note the format requirements for each category as listed below. You will maintain copyright ownership of your entry. However, it is hereby understood that your entry will be viewed and or listened to by an EAA screening committee who will select the finalists. All finalists will then go to its respective panel of expert jurors. All finalist works, and bio will be posted on this website for public viewing and voting for our 'People's Choice' competition. It is also understood that should you be selected as a finalist and win, that Eco Arts Awards will use your image to promote you and the competition. We will have a separate letter of agreement that will need to be signed that gives specifics on how your image may be used for promotional purposes only.

The "Early Bird" entry fee is $25, if you submit your work(s) prior to September 30th, 2011. After September 30th the regular entry fee is $30. The final deadline will be November 30th, 2011. You can enter as many different works as you wish.

Eco Arts Awards reserves the right to extend the entry deadline and modify the entry fee at any time. Entry fees paid prior to modification are not effected

All entries will be judged first and foremost on its thematic originality, secondarily on the specific qualities unique to its category and or genre. Please read the jurors comments for each category.

All entries submitted must be original and shall not infringe on any copyrights or any other rights of any third parties. All entries may have multiple collaborators, but only one name should be designated on the entry form. Entrant shall, by entering, indemnify and hold Eco Arts Awards LLC harmless from any claims of copyright infringement. All finalists will be required to sign an affidavit that their work is original to them.

EAA is open to all amateur and professional artists. Employees of EAA, its families, subsidiaries and affiliates are not eligible. If entrant is under 18 years old, the signature of a parent or guardian is required on our downloadable pdf entry form, and must be mailed in to us before entry is approved.

The following is important information regarding your entry for its respective category: (Please note our entry fee is $30 per individual work, and you many enter as many works as you wish. You will have to fill out our entry form each time. We do have an Early Bird deadline of September 30th, which enjoys a discounted entry fee of $25 per individual work.)

Songwriting

If mailing your songs to EAA, please include all songs and only the songs you wish to enter on one cd. Please type your name and tape it on the spine of the cd case, and on the cover. Please include a typed track list of all songs on the cd, in case you have entered more than one song. Also please send typed lyrics double spaced with your CD. If you are uploading an MP3 to EAA's website, you must also upload your lyrics, typed and double spaced on a word doc. or in a pdf format, or any other format that is mentioned on the entry form.

Selection criteria for winning entries in the songwriting category will be:

Thematic impact - relevance to ecological issues
Melody, arrangement, originality and lyrics
Production value and quality of performance will not be considered in the judging criteria

Literature

This category includes, poetry, essays, short stories and novella's. The recommended maximum word length for essays and or short stories or novella's is 5,000 words. Essay's, can be academic or personal inquiry. Novella's and shorts stories can be fact or fiction. Poems can be of any type. All Literary entries must be typed in 12 point type and double spaced. Times Roman is the recommended font. Make sure your name, the title of your written work, your phone number and email address are included.

All literary pieces may be mailed to:

Eco Arts Awards 224 Aurora Drive Asheville, N.C. 28805

You can also upload written works on our entry form using a word document, saved as a pdf.

Selection criteria for winning entries in the literature category will be:

Thematic impact (and relevance to ecological issues)
Originality and artistry of voice, style, language and imagery
Technique (structure, language, poetic and literary devices)

Photography

Please have your unmounted prints mailed in flat packages. They can be any size you think lends itself best to your artistic statement. The mailing address for all entries is:

Eco Arts Awards 224 Aurora Drive Asheville, N.C. 28805

You may also upload your image on our entry form as a jpeg saved as RGB (not cmyk) maximum 1024 pixels wide x 768 pixels high @ 72 dpi. We are looking for personal expression, documentary, and or digitally enhanced images.

Selection criteria for winning entries in the photography category will be:

Thematic Impact - relevance to ecological issues
Sharpness, Focus of Image(s), then exposure
Artistic Eye, Composition

Fine Art

This category can include paintings, mixed media, drawings with any medium, sculpture, and direct environmental interventions.

Please do not mail in any original art, only images of your work. It is recommended that if you are mailing us your entry please use slides. Do not send more than one slide per 2 dimensional piece, and you can send up to 5 slides for 3 dimensional works. Our mailing address is:

Eco Arts Awards 224 Aurora Drive Asheville, N.C 28805

You can also upload images from our entry form. It is important to ZIP multiple images as we can only accept one item at a time. The image formats we will be using are jpeg, jpg and png. Your images should be 72 dpi.

This category includes, ceramics, woodwork, clothing, jewelry, fiber arts, pottery. Please do not send any original works. We will not mail it back to you, in fact we do not mail back slides or photographs either. If mailing in your entry please use slides and no more than five for any one work. There is a pdf entry form that can be downloaded from the online entry form, under the 'Enter Here' button. If you are using our online entry form and uploading please use one of the jpeg formats and if sending multiple images you must zip them, as we can only upload one item per entry.

Selection criteria for winning entries in the functional art category will be:

Thematic impact (and relevance to ecological issues)
Original use of the media
Technique particular to your chosen media
materials used; did you use recycled, repurposed material's and non-toxic materials wherever possible?

Short Videos

These can be of any quality and can be linked to our website through the YOUTUBE link in the entry form. Please adhere to the maximum 15 minutes.

Selection criteria for short video's

Thematic impact (and relevance to ecological issues)
Overall execution of craft; editing, sound, cinematography, performances, lighting, set designs
Integration, how well do all the elements of the film work together
Overall Experience - techniques as well as the intangibles that evoke viewer response

Entrant acknowledges that all submissions entered may be distributed to judges who will be selecting the winners, and entrant agrees to release, indemnify, and hold EAA, its sponsors, and judges harmless for liability, damages, or claims for injury or loss to any person or property relating to, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, participation in EAA. EAA will do its best to adhere to all deadlines but reserves the right to change the deadlines if it is necessary. EAA can not be held responsible for any unforseen delay in the judging process subject to time constraints of its selection committee and panel of expert jurors. Winners will be notified by phone and or email. There will be a six month period in which winners should be expected to receive all prizes donated by its sponsors. The cash awards will be issued in the form of a check within thirty days of announcing the winners on this website and in our newsletter. All winners will be contacted by phone first and email.

As an entrant to EAA it is your responsibility to have read all of our terms and conditions, rules, and guidelines, and to verify that you have done so, but clicking the agree button. By entering EAA competition you agree to adhere to the decision of its judges and public voting. Entrant agrees to be bound by all terms of these official competition rules and regulations.

As an entrant you agree to allow us to show your work on this site, if you are a finalists, a first place winner, the people's choice or a grand prize winner, without compensation. Entry constitutes permission to use winner's name, likeness, and voice for future advertising and publicity purposes without additional compensation.

All finalists will be required to sign an affidavit confirming that their submission is original and that the entrant holds the rights to the work. Failure to sign and return the form in the required time period or provision of false information may result in disqualification and an alternate winner may be selected. Affidavits are subject to verification by EAA and its agents. Entry constitutes permission to use winner's name, likenes, and voice for future advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation.

There will be a $1,000 cash prize to the first place winner of each category. This money will be mailed to the winners via a check within thirty days of announcing the winners. Prizes offered by sponsors will be the responsibility of the sponsor to ship or mail to respective winners. Sponsors have up to 90 days to deliver their merchandise, after the winners have been announced. The cash awards are the responsibility of EcoArtsAwards. The merchandise prizes are the responsibility of the individual sponsors, not EAA. EAA will do everything in its power to ensure that sponsors are informed of who the winners are and give them the appropriate mailing information, but EAA can not bear full responsibility of the delivery of merchandise from third parties.

For those entries that have multiple people who have collaborated on the work, we ask that you submit only one person's full name and contact details. We will distribute the cash and prizes to that person. It will be up to all collaborators on any winning piece to as to how you distribute the cash and or prize(s).

EAA will not be responsible for paying any federal, state or local taxes on merchandise awarded to winners, it will be the sole responsibility of the winner to pay any taxes due.

http://ecoartsawards.com

Click on the link above and go to the contest official site