Submission Criteria
Subject Matter
Submissions need to depict a positive future. It should be clear that things are better than they are now, and will continue to be so.
Your art should tell a story about a particular place and those who live there.
Your work will be shared with a general audience, including children. You do not need to tailor your work to any particular age group, but you will need to make sure it is appropriate to share with the public. We will not accept works that include erotic elements or graphic violence. Works that promote discrimination against protected classes (race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, etc) will not be accepted.
We are deeply interested in tapping into the ideas of our community members. As such, we will not accept images or other works generated in part or in whole by AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Dall-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, etc.
The volunteers behind Imagine Our Future will be the final arbiters of which submissions are considered appropriate for the project.
Format
You may submit at most two pieces of art, each in a different medium (writing, visual art, audio/video, etc).
Written works must be 7500 words or less. Works other than poetry should be a minimum of 250 words. Accepted formats are Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, or plain text. While the submission review process will take into account the age of the writer, participants should take care to submit work that has been carefully checked for grammar and spelling.
Visual art should be submitted as a jpg, png, or heic file. We will accept both digital and traditional media. Images should be a minimum of 800 pixels on their longer side, and a maximum of 5MB in size.
Multimedia (audio/video) submissions under 5MB may be submitted directly through the submission form. For larger files please fill out the submission form and then contact us to arrange for file transfers.
Lamentamos no poder evaluar correctamente las obras escritas en español, pero podemos aceptar obras de arte visuales.
Rights
You retain all rights to your work. By submitting your work you are granting Imagine Our Future non-exclusive permission to share your work with the public on this website.
Who May Submit
Submissions will only be accepted from:
People living in Monmouth and Independence Oregon and the surrounding area (zip codes 97361 and 97351).
Students attending Western Oregon University.
Any student at K-12 schools that serve Monmouth and Independence residents.
We encourage artists in other communities to work together to organize similar events where they live.
Awards
Best-of-show awards and cash prizes will be announced for submissions in the following age groups:
Elementary School - $30
Middle School - $30
High School - $100
Adult - $100
Awards will be given if there are at least 3 entries in a given category for a given art form (writing or visual art).
Members of the Monmouth-Independence Climate Group and their immediate family members will not be eligible for the best-of-show awards, and works they submit will not count towards the minimum submission count in order for a category to be eligible for an award.
Submission and Publication Dates
Submissions will open February 15th 2025 and close March 31st 2025. All accepted works will be published on this website April 22, 2025 (Earth Day). Return to this page for a link to the submission form.