Call Description

Enter for Your Chance to Win Cash and Be A Featured Artist On StoriesToArt!

Everyone has a story, and we believe that any story can become a work of art.

www.StoriesToArt.com empowers art lovers to select exclusive pieces of art or commission art, music or poetry inspired by their own – or a loved one’s – stories and memories. The result is a one-of-a-kind treasure/gift that offers them unique creative input while allowing artists to maintain their style and creative license. Best of all, artists on our site keep 60% of their sales, and 5% of our profits go to arts education via StoriesToArt Gives Back.

We welcome distinguished artists from every field, and recent art school graduates are encouraged to apply to this contest.

A Competition With Unique Inspirations...

From the stories at the very bottom of these rules, choose at least 1 as inspiration (literal and/or figurative) for a piece of art, poetry or song. Use our other stories as inspiration or submit up to 5 additional works of art along with the stories that inspired them. Stories should not be more than 125-200 words long. Each contestant must submit at least 3 entries.

Think about how your style would work with capturing a moment or story someone tells you – we can envision paintings, sculpture, illustration, comics, animation, industrial designs, jewelry, textiles, mixed media, photography, poetry and songs, but are open to all media.

Contest Duration:  This contest is now closed.
Invitations to Exhibit on StoriesToArt.com:  July 31, 2016
Artists will be invited to exhibit on a rolling basis between July 20, 2016 and July 31, 2016.
Top 12 will be announced by July 31, 2016.

The Awards

Round One: A panel of professional artists, poets and songwriters will choose up to 400 artists to invite to exhibit their work on StoriesToArt.com, an online gallery that will launch in 2016.  Invitations will be sent between July 16 and July 31, 2016.

Round Two: The judges will then select 12 finalists from the invitees and award the top 12 works as outlined below. Good luck!

1st Place
$5,000
Art and profile featured on the StoriesToArt homepage

2nd Place
$3,000
Art and profile featured on StoriesToArt 

3rd Place
$1,000
Art and profile featured on StoriesToArt 

4th – 12th Place Honorable Mentions
$500
Art featured on StoriesToArt 

The top 12 will be posted to StoriesToArt.com.

Submissions

StoriesToArt embraces talent rather than a specific genre or medium. We welcome work from students, early-career artists and amateurs, as well as more established artists from the United States.

This art contest is open to any artist in any media. (Yay, we love art!) Each participant must submit at least 3 entries.

Go to StoriesToArt.com for a sneak peek at our website under construction. 

Registration is $15 (to cover uploading expenses). All submissions must be uploaded through this website. You will not be required to provide your submission physically.  You may pay by credit card at check out or send a check to StoriesToArt, P.O. Box 343, Earlysville, VA 22936. 

You may enter up to 6 pieces of your original art, including work that has won awards in other art shows and work that has already been sold as long as you still have the legal right to show such work on our website. However, at least 3 pieces entered must be available for sale on StoriesToArt in the event you are invited to exhibit on StoriesToArt and you accept such invitation. All work must be dated (either in the description or on the piece).

You may only enter artwork that was inspired by a vivid memory, shared moment or personal story. One entry must be inspired by stories we provide (listed below). Just make sure to indicate which story we provided with the entry by placing the story number in the description. You don’t need to type the story in again.

Each additional entry must include a story that inspired the work. Stories may be up to 200 words, but shorter is typically better. Take your time and craft a story worth reading.  
Artists and Songwriters, make sure you put each story that inspired each piece in the "Description" field with each media as you upload it to "My Portfolio."  If you have difficulty uploading your stories, you may send them along with your name and the titles of your submissions directly to info@storiestoart.com.

Poets, when completing "My Portfolio" you will be asked to upload media.  Do NOT upload your poetry at this step.  Upload your poetry on the second page of the StoriesToArt application, below the stories provided on the application.     

Songwriters, take care to ensure the sound quality is professional (e.g., free of extraneous sounds), whether they be home mastered or studio recorded.

3D artists, please provide front and back shots as well as detail shots of the surface.  You may email additional images to info@storiestoart.com.

Images must be 1920 pixels on the longest side. Subject matter must be viewable for all ages. Photography must be original or a limited edition of 100 or less.

Make sure that your work is signed and try to make it visible in the images or documents you upload.

There is a two-page length restriction for poetry.

There is a 3.5-minute duration restriction for songs. Songwriters retain all rights to their songs but, if using lyrics, must credit the storywriter as one of the writers of the lyrics.

How the Judging Works

In Round One, judges will judge submissions against other works in the same media and select up to 400 artists, poets, and songwriters who will be invited to exhibit on StoriesToArt.com.

In Round Two, judges will select the 12 finalists from the media categories and proceed to rank the finalists.

2-d and 3-d Visual Art will be judged on the following criteria: Technical Skill, Creativity, Design Fundamentals (as applicable to various media), and Story Conversion.

Poetry will be judged on the following criteria: Structure, Word/Language, and Story Conversion.

Songs will be judged on the following criteria: Adaptation of the story in the song, Creativity, Musicality of the recorded song, Overall pitch and timing, and Quality of recording.

Judges will not rate work by artists they know personally or professionally.

The Legal Stuff

All entries that follow the rules may be displayed on our website and become part of the public, contest archives. The art may or may not be removed at a later date at StoriesToArt’s discretion.

Your work must be your own original concept, that you created, and not a copy of anyone else's copyrighted material.

Artwork, poems and songs may be submitted until midnight, central time, on 6/30/16. The decision of the judges will be final.

By submitting art, poetry or songs to this art competition, you are granting us a worldwide, non-exclusive perpetual license to reproduce images or recordings of your work (on this website and in any other media used by StoriesToArt with credit and links to you, of course).

You must be a citizen or legal resident of the United States, 18 or older, to be eligible for awards.

By entering the competition, you agree to abide by all rules.

StoriesToArt reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify or terminate this contest in the event of any act, occurrence, or reason that it believes would corrupt the integrity, administration, or fairness of the contest.

VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW

This competition is sponsored by StoriesToArt, LLC, a Virginia limited liability company. Please contact info@storiestoart.com with any questions.

THE STORIES

1. His Safety Net
A bottom, clothed in a slightly damp diaper, was headed for my face.  This chubby little toddler was intently “reading” The Fuzzy Duckling.  He just stepped backwards and plopped in my lap, without ever looking back!  For that brief moment, I thought I had parenting down.  
By Tracy, age 55

2. The Light
We'll leave the porch light burning for a year, honey.
By Barbara, age 79

3. The Pink Tutu
It was the summer of the lawn party. Birthday parties, and everybody was young. Late afternoon and we gathered with sweat-beaded glasses of lemonade. Our children tumbled by and we watched for signs of fatigue or trouble, but instead we were greeted by fireflies, early summer shadows, someone on the back porch with a guitar.

We gathered our children when it was time to leave. Our daughter, this was the year of the pink tutu. She wore it everywhere, over her clothes. On this day, over denim overalls, a diaper, and nothing else.

One summer turns into twenty and our children duck into used cars. We wave to them from our own lawns now. Be careful, don’t speed, call when you get there—and they leave.

You get older. You forget so many things. Your glasses, your comb, and enormous scenes from your life. But some pictures remain. Some pictures cozy up inside you and never leave. On summer mornings, half awake, this is where you live: lightning bug tracers, clinking ice cubes, and a blue-eyed girl in a pink tutu, waving to you across the lawn.
By Jeff, age 58

4. Famoly
Famoly is nise, oh famoly is great. They will never hit you with a crate.
By Mason, age 7

5. Skating in the Snow
We were harried at the train station, running late, suitcase leaking, but we got you boarded, settled, and off to college. From the platform, we waved you off into your new life and wondered what to do with our own.

On the train, nearing Baltimore, you opened a discarded magazine and read advertisements for snowboards, skis, flannels and ice skates. Last winter, two weeks after Christmas, you skated on a pond near your home. You skated with your brother, and your parents tagged along on skates purchased that day from Goodwill. Cars and Coleman lanterns circled the pond. Headlights beamed on high. It was pretty, a few rogue snowflakes, the lights, and the blue, packed ice. We rested at some point with laced hot chocolate, and you skated alone and fast.

Driving home, we tried for light banter. Your absence felt immense, but still, we were so proud. We passed the Dairy Queen and the Wilco gas station, all lit up in the evening. Nearing home, we passed the pond, empty now, flowing.

I said, Do you remember? Of course, you said. I do.
By J.P., age 18

6. The Wedding Proposal
I’m better because of you. I laugh more. It’s the silly stuff you do, like becoming a human escalator, and disappearing behind the couch…peeking your head through the doorway and then having a hand appear from nowhere to pull you away by the neck.  I’m not forgotten. Every birthday I’ll get a hand drawn card with a somewhat cliché drawing and classic block lettering. I trust you. It’s not in you to cheat.  I’m never bored.  You’re like the old encyclopedias, full of facts that, thankfully, only reveal themselves when someone has an interest in turning the page. I’ll never be stagnant.  You’re up for new experiences. I judge less. You always consider another’s perspective. Will you marry me?   
By Anonymous

7. Nothing Beats Nature
Do you remember that horrendous storm, when the lights went out and we hid in the closet? Do you remember the next morning when that rainbow spilt over Glacier Park? You said nothing beats nature.
By Peggy, age 35

8. The Familiar
It’s the lemons that I remember. Not the weekly trek to the market, the skillful selection of the sweetest melons and heartiest vegetables, not the familiar banter with the farmers, not the rows of flowers in 5 gallon buckets, not the smell of coffee in your travel cup, but the lemons that you placed with such care on our farm table.
By Alice, age 27 

9. The Butterfly
 A turquoise butterfly landed on my father’s nose.  I must have been 7-years-old, max…  I remember thinking it was the funniest thing ever and then the sun hit the butterfly and half of it turned to gold.  It was magical.
By Elijah, age 42

Application Requirements

Eligibility Criteria

Print this Page    View Rules & Terms to Apply