The Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts is expanding its award offerings with a new prize for more modern mediums.
Backed by Living Water Resorts, the BMFA has established the Digital Arts Technology Awards (DATA) to recognize artists who do much of their work on a screen.
The contest includes things like digital illustration, graphic design, video, photo manipulation, and animation.
“The intention is to give some recognition to digital arts,” said Susan Cook, operations manager for the BMFA. “I know that’s an area of artistic endeavour becoming more popular.”
The judging panel includes a cartoonist, a graphic artist, and a filmmaker.
The awards include an open and a student category. Entry for students is free, and it’s $10 for an entry in the open category.
The award is meant to recognize emerging artists, so those submitting entries must self-identify as such. To qualify, you must also be a resident of the South Georgian Bay region.
The student category is open to youth in grades 10 through 12 as of May 2019.
The prize in the open category is $1,000 cash and the prize in the student category is a $500 bursary.
The winning entries will be exhibited in the Press Room Gallery at the 65 Simcoe Street during the month of September.
The deadline to submit an entry to the DATA award is Aug. 15. For more on submission instructions and guidelines, click here.
The BMFA is also continuing to run its regular award programs, including the Storytelling Festival Photo Competition, now entering its fourth year.
Each photo entered in the competition is required to have a title of six words or fewer - a concept based on the legend of the six-word story, allegedly written by Ernest Hemingway, that reads: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
The Storytelling photo contest is juried, and 25 per cent of each entry’s score is allocated to the six-word title.
“We doing know of anyone else doing this,” said Cook. “When you have the descriptive title, it engages people to stop and really look through the eyes of the photographer. You’ve got a starting place for looking at what’s in the photo. It gives the viewer a context.”
The winners of the photo contest are announced in October, there is a reception and a jury critique for those who entered photos.
Entry fees for the photo competition are $20 for the first and $15 for subsequent photos for a maximum of three entries per photographer. Entry is free for students. There’s a cash prize of $200 for the winner, $150 for second place, and $100 for third place.
The deadline for entry into the Storyteller photo contest is Aug. 18. For more on submitting entries, click here.
