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1. Sponsor

 

The Derricotte Art Contest (the “Contest”) is presented by the Whitfield Remembrance Project (“Sponsor”) All questions regarding these Official Rules should be directed to whitfieldremembranceproject@gmail.com.

 

2. Contest Overview

 

The Contest invites original works of visual art and literary art responding to the theme: Unconquerable Peace of the Soul

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Various awards will be given:

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• Visual Art Award - Adult and Student categories 

• Literary Art Award - Adult and Student categories 

 

Total prize money will be no less than $3,000, divided between the awards. Final prize amounts are being finalized by the board and will be announced publicly before the submission deadline. No substitution, transfer, or cash equivalent of any prize is permitted except at the sole discretion of the Sponsor.

 

3. Eligibility

 

The Contest is open to all individuals located in the U.S. There is no age requirement. Entrants under the age of 18 at the time of submission must have a parent or legal guardian review these Official Rules, consent to the entrant’s participation, and co-sign the entry form. By submitting an entry on behalf of a minor, the parent or legal guardian agrees to be bound by these Official Rules on the minor’s behalf.

 

Employees, officers, directors, board members, and volunteers of the Sponsor, the named judges, and the immediate family members and household members of each are not eligible to enter.

The Contest may be promoted with particular emphasis on students and residents in the Dalton, Georgia area and the corridor between Nashville, Tennessee and Athens, Georgia, but submissions are welcome and judged equally from anywhere in the U.S. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

 

4. Categories and Accepted Media

 

Visual Art Category. Eligible media include painting, drawing, watercolor, acrylic, photography, printmaking, sculpture, mixed media, digital art, and other comparable visual media. The Sponsor reserves the right to determine in its discretion whether a submitted medium qualifies.

 

Literary Art Category. Eligible forms include poems, short stories, personal essays, creative nonfiction, and other comparable written forms. Literary entries must be in English and must not exceed 4,000 words.

 

Each entrant may submit one (1) entry per category. A single entrant may enter both categories.

 

5. Submission Requirements

 

All entries must be:

(a) the entrant’s own original work, created solely by the entrant;

(b) previously unpublished in any commercial venue, and not the subject of any pending submission to another contest where the rules of that other contest would conflict with these Rules;

(c) free of third-party copyrighted material, recognizable trademarks, and identifiable likenesses of any person other than the entrant, unless the entrant holds documented permission to use such material and provides that documentation upon request; and

(d) free of content that is defamatory, obscene, unlawful, or that promotes hatred or violence against any group.

 

Visual art submissions must first be submitted as high-resolution digital images (minimum 300 DPI, JPEG or PNG format) showing the work. For sculpture, entrants must submit at least three images from different angles. Entrants whose works are selected as finalists will be contacted by the Sponsor to arrange delivery of the physical original for inclusion in the exhibit described in Section 8.

 

Literary art submissions must be submitted as PDF or Microsoft Word (.docx) documents, double-spaced, in a standard 12-point serif font, with the entrant’s name appearing only on the title page and not on the manuscript itself.

 

Each submission must be accompanied by a title page including the entrant’s name, age, mailing address, email address, phone number, the title of the work, the category, a brief artist’s statement of two to five sentences, the additional category-specific information described in the Call for Entries, and, for entrants under 18, the signed consent of a parent or legal guardian.

 

6. How to Enter

 

All submissions, including digital images of visual artwork and literary manuscripts, must be sent by email to whitfieldremembranceproject@gmail.com no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on October 7, 2026. Late, incomplete, illegible, or improperly submitted entries will not be considered. The Sponsor is not responsible for entries that are lost, delayed, misdirected, or fail to transmit for any reason.

 

There is no entry fee.

 

7. Judging and Selection

 

Entries will be judged in two stages.

 

Stage One — Preliminary Review. A preliminary panel convened by the Sponsor will review all eligible entries and select ten to twenty finalists in each category.

Stage Two — Final Judging. Finalists in each category will be forwarded to the category’s prominent guest judge for final selection. Judges will evaluate finalists based on (a) artistic merit and technical execution, (b) originality, and (c) responsiveness to the Contest theme. The decisions of the final judges are final and binding in all respects.

 

8. Finalist Delivery, Exhibit, and Artwork Return

 

Visual art finalists must deliver their physical original work to the Sponsor for judging during the period between October 7 and November 7, 2026. Delivery may be made by drop-off at the Sponsor’s office in Ringgold, Georgia at a scheduled time, or by mail to the address provided by the Sponsor. The Sponsor is not responsible for damage occurring during shipping.

 

Visual artwork will be available for pick-up at the close of the exhibit on November 7, 2026. Works not retrieved by December 7, 2026 may be held, displayed in subsequent Sponsor programs, or donated at the Sponsor’s sole discretion, and the entrant waives any further claim to the work.

 

9. Announcement of Winners

 

Winners will be announced on November 7, 2026 at the Emery Center exhibit and by direct notification to each winner at the email address provided on the entry form. Each winner must respond to confirm acceptance of the award within fourteen (14) days of notification. A winner who fails to respond within that period, or who is determined to be ineligible, may forfeit the award, in which case the Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, select an alternate winner from the finalist pool.

 

10. Prize Payment and Tax Matters

 

Each award will be paid to the winner by check or electronic transfer following confirmation of acceptance and receipt of any tax documentation required by law (including, where applicable, an IRS Form W-9). For minor winners, payment will be issued to the parent or legal guardian on behalf of the minor or as otherwise required by applicable law. All federal, state, and local taxes on the award are the sole responsibility of the winner (or, for minors, the winner’s parent or legal guardian).

 

11. Rights in Submitted Work

 

Each entrant retains full copyright and ownership of the work they submit.

 

By entering, each entrant grants the Sponsor a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, display, distribute, and publicly perform the submitted work in connection with the Contest and the activities described in these Rules. That permission is limited to: (a) conducting and judging the Contest; (b) displaying the work at the November 7, 2026 exhibit at the Emery Center; (c) including chosen works in the Whitfield Remembrance Project commemorative book (print and/or digital) with full credit to the artist; (d) photographing submitted works for documentation and event promotion; and (e) using the entrant's name, age, hometown, and image of the work for the Sponsor's promotion and publicity in connection with the Contest.

 

This license does not transfer copyright, does not preclude the entrant from publishing, exhibiting, selling, or licensing the work elsewhere, and does not grant the Sponsor any right to sublicense the work for commercial use by third parties.

 

12. Representations and Warranties; Indemnification

 

By entering, each entrant (and, for minors, their parent or legal guardian) represents and warrants that: (a) the entrant is the sole author and owner of the submitted work; (b) the work does not infringe any copyright, trademark, right of privacy, right of publicity, or other right of any third party; (c) the entrant has obtained any necessary releases and permissions for any identifiable persons depicted in the work; and (d) all information provided on the entry form is true and accurate.

The entrant agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Sponsor, its officers, board members, volunteers, and judges from any claim arising out of a breach of these representations and warranties.

 

13. Disqualification

 

The Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any entry or entrant that does not comply with these Official Rules, that the Sponsor reasonably believes is not the original work of the entrant (including work generated in whole or substantial part by artificial intelligence systems), or that is otherwise inconsistent with the purposes of the Contest.

 

14. General Conditions

 

The Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, suspend, modify, or terminate the Contest, or to extend any deadline, if fraud, technical failure, or any other factor beyond the Sponsor’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Contest, as determined by the Sponsor in its sole discretion.

 

By entering, each entrant releases the Sponsor and its officers, board members, volunteers, and judges from any liability for any injury, loss, or damage of any kind arising out of participation in the Contest, acceptance or use of any prize, or any matter relating to the Contest, except where such release is prohibited by law.

 

These Official Rules are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising under these Official Rules shall be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Whitfield County, Georgia, and each entrant consents to the jurisdiction of those courts.

 

If any provision of these Official Rules is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

 

15. Privacy

 

Information collected from entrants will be used by the Sponsor for purposes of administering the Contest and communicating with entrants about the Contest and the Sponsor’s related programs. The Sponsor will not sell entrant information to third parties.

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NO DONATION NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A DONATION WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.