2024 Project
2024 Art Competition
About this project
Untold Stories began in 2021 as an art- and media-based community-action project, seeking to illuminate the experiences of older adults and the professionals who serve them through conversation, collaboration, art, and advocacy.
This year we are hosting an art competition to continue to build our digital archive, foster dialogue and conversation around unstoried representations of aging and later life, and inspire both new and continuing artists of all ages to imagine aging futures in creative, diverse, and meaningful ways.
Contest Guidelines
Artists are invited to submit up to 3 art pieces of any medium or format (e.g., painting, poetry, photography, sculpture, textiles, mixed-media, etc.) using our online submission form below to have their work considered for one of four cash prizes.
We invite submissions from folks who create art at any level, from those who have never created art to professional artists.
Submissions can be made by an individual or group.
Artists may be of any age. Younger submitting artists (age 50 or younger) are encouraged but not required to incorporate the voice, insight, or artistic contributions of an older adult into the design of their piece.
Prize Amounts:
Individual Submissions
1st Prize - $1,000
2nd Prize - $750
3rd Prize - $500
Group Submissions:
1st Prize - $2,000
Submission form
Submissions must include the artistic piece, which can be a document or high-quality image, and a written description of the piece, its meaning, and how it relates to aging or later life-related themes (max 500 words).
On the submission form, you will be asked to provide the artist(s) age, any involvement of an older adult in the creation process (if relevant), and permission to include the submission in our digital archive.
Winners will be selected by an awards committee that will assess pieces for creativity and originality, quality of composition and design, meaning-making around a later life- or aging-focused theme, and inclusion of an older adult(s) in the creative process.
Submission must be received by 11:59pm on May 4th, 2024, to be considered for a cash prize.
Please contact Sarah Jen by email at srjen@ku.edu or phone at 616-334-6594 with any questions.
Hard copies of the submission form are available upon request.