Submission Criteria
1. This year’s theme is “Freedom” (what does freedom mean to you)? Submissions may come from any current Temple University undergraduate student.
2. All creative works must be submitted and received by Monday, April 8, 2024, 11:59 pm ET.
3. Submissions must be the student’s original idea. Students should not knowingly copy another’s idea, but entries will not be excluded merely because another submission has a similar idea. You may only submit one entry per person. You must be the creator of the art and image file you or your approved representative submit to the competition. Your art must be your own original concept and not a copy of anyone else’s copyrighted material. (If your image infringes upon another’s copyright it will be disqualified.)
4. Groups. You may submit your work as an individual or as part of a group. If submitting as a group, one person (leader) will complete the submission form on behalf of the group and serve as the contact person for the group. If the group wins a cash prize, that one prize will be divided among the group.
5. Must not contain material that is threatening, harassing, or discriminatory (based on race, sex, religion, natural origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or age), and must not promote illegal activities.
6. Must not include mention or performance of any non-authorized copyrighted media production including but not limited to music, films, books, television programming, etc., or identifying descriptions of any media property.
7. Must not contain material that violates or infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to material that violates privacy, publicity, or intellectual property rights, or that constitutes copyright infringement. Without limiting the foregoing, submissions must not include third party trademarks, logos, insignia, location signage, photographs, artwork, music, or sculptures without permission.
8. Though all works will be submitted virtual, all participants should be ready, willing, and able to bring in the actual work for display. If requested, we will return submitted artwork by the end of the fall 2023 semester. Students are responsible for dropping off and picking up submissions, and all shipping costs.
9. The Justice Through Art Contest and Temple’s Criminal Justice Department reserves the right to use and reproduce the artwork on marketing materials and during Temple University events.
10. Temple University is not responsible for lost, damaged, or stolen artwork. Temple University will not indemnify or insure artwork for damages to the work itself or for any loss that may result from the displaying of the artwork.
11. Winner Notification: Winners of the Contest will be notified via e-mail or phone number provided within five (5) days following the winner selection. Justice Through Art shall have no liability for a winner’s failure to receive notices due to winners’ spam, junk e-mail or other security settings or for winners’ provision of incorrect or otherwise non-functioning contact information. If the selected winner cannot be contacted, is ineligible, fails to claim the prize within 15 days from the time award notification was sent, or fails to timely return a completed and executed declaration and releases as required, prize may be forfeited and an alternate winner selected. The receipt by winner of the prize offered in this Contest is conditioned upon compliance with any and all federal and state laws and regulations. ANY VIOLATION OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES BY ANY WINNER (AT SPONSOR’S SOLE DISCRETION) WILL RESULT IN SUCH WINNER’S DISQUALIFICATION AS WINNER OF THE CONTEST AND ALL PRIVILEGES AS WINNER WILL BE IMMEDIATELY TERMINATED.
12. Judging: Judging will be done via a panel of judges. The Contest entries will be judged based on:
- Creativity and originality of the depicted theme.
- Quality of artistic composition and overall design based on the theme.
- Overall impression of the art.
- Color or image quality.
- Sloppiness.
- Incomplete or poorly written submission materials.
Prizes
The winners for both categories Visual and Literary will receive the following:
- 1st place – $400
- 2nd place – $200
- 3rd place – $100
Prize money will be deposited directly into the student’s TU account.
Submission Examples
All submissions must be display ready. Examples of submissions include, but are not limited to:
Visual Arts
- Posters (jpg, png, gif)
- Printmaking (jpg, png, gif)
- Paintings in any media (jpg, png, gif)
- Drawings (jpg, png, gif)
- Mixed-media/multimedia art: visual art that combines a variety of media into one piece. (jpg, png, gif)
- Performance art (Recorded in avi, mp4, wmv, or mov format), max file size 10 MB
- Sculpture/ceramics or any other tri-dimensional art piece (jpg, png, gif)
- Digital Media (web-based, photography, videos, graphic/visual designs) (jpg, png, gif)
- Original music composition (mp3 format)
- Short film
- 10 minutes maximum (those exceeding the time limit will be disqualified)
- Any genre : fiction/non- fiction (documentary), animated, music video
- Follow the following file formats: avi, mp4, wmv, mov, max file size 10 MB.
Literary Arts
- Creative writing (maximum 1500 words) (doc, docx, pdf)
- Poetry (maximum 450 words) (doc, docx, pdf)
Submission Instructions
1. Complete the online submission form and upload your work along with the form. For the visual arts category, you can submit up to three images online to provide alternate views of the same work.
2. We encourage you to make sure that your work is ready to be displayed when submitted, including any required hardware (for Visual). Click here for more information about how to photograph and display your Visual artwork. For Written, be sure that there are no typos and it is correctly formatted.
3. If the campus opens up to in-person events, we may invite finalists to bring in their actual submission to put on display. If selected as a finalist, your work can be submitted as follows:
In person, please drop off submissions to the:
Criminal Justice Office, 509 Gladfelter Hall.
By mail, please send to:
Joseph R DelMastro
1115 W Berks Street
509 Gladfelter Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19122