CLAY COUNTY – Through June 15, the Clay County Public Library System will hold an art contest seeking artwork for special, limited-edition library cards for Library Card Sign-Up Month in September 2024. The theme for this art contest will be “Adventure Begins at Your Library” after the Summer Reading Theme.

The contest is open to all residents of Clay County, Florida, of all ages. Amateur artists will be grouped and judged by age: 5 and under, 6-11, 12-18, and 19 and older.

Professional artists will be grouped and judged in a separate category. The judging panel will decide their professional status at its discretion.

Entries may be returned at any Clay County Public Library Branch at ptlibrary@claycountygov.com through June 15 at 5 p.m.

Digital artwork may be submitted, along with a scanned, signed entry form. No late entries will be accepted.

Judging will be done by a panel of Clay County Board of County Commissioners staff and will take place between June 17-21.

Winners will be announced on June 28.

Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• Were the rules of submission followed?
• Does the artwork exemplify the theme, “Adventure Begins at Your Library”?
• Is the artwork appropriate for a library card based on size, content, and
  medium?
• Artist’s creativity and design of the artwork.

Prizes will be awarded to the first-place winner of each age group in the Amateur artists' category as well as the first-place winner of the Professional artists' category. Second- and third-place winners of each will be awarded a certificate.

All first-place winners will have their artwork appear on limited edition library cards, available beginning Sept. 1, while supplies last. All first-place winners will also be judged with the possibility of becoming the new artwork for our general-use library card.

Clay County Public Library staff, judging panel staff, and their immediate family members are ineligible to participate.

Limit one entry a person.

Artwork must be 10.5 inches by 6.6 inches in size, and it can have a plain white border as necessary.

Digital artwork must be submitted as a flattened PDF file not exceeding 25MB. It must be in CMYK color mode and at least 300 DPI.

The artwork must use a digitized medium, such as a pen, pencil, crayon, marker or watercolor. Mediums that will smudge or come off when touched, like pastels and charcoal, create texture, like oil paints and collages or are three-dimensional, will not be accepted.

Artwork must not be signed.

The artwork must be original, previously unpublished andnot infringe on the intellectual property rights or privacy rights of another.

Artwork may be digital but must not include AI-generated elements in whole or part.

For more information, visit bit.ly/ArtTheCard.