ADJUDICATORS: A call for an expression of interest for adjudicators is made each September. This is a paid opportunity. Anyone interested in serving as an adjudicator can contact paulamorgan@gov.nl.ca / 709.729.7613. Adjudicators must be residents of the province.
WHO SEES THE ENTRIES: The adjudication of entries is an arms-length process. Entries are seen only by the adjudicators and government staff assigned to the program. Only after the announcement of the winners are any entries presented to the public. This consists of a public exhibition of winning and selected entries in the visual arts sections and winning entries in the Literary, Music, and Media Arts sections. Following the announcement of the winners, award-winning entries (or excerpts thereof) in all sections are posted on the Arts and Letters website with the permission of the entrant.
RESTRICTIONS ON ENTRY: An adjudicator may not submit an entry to any section in the year they are adjudicating. Entrants are not permitted to submit an entry to a section if that section is being adjudicated by an immediate family member. Family members are permitted to enter in any other section for which they are otherwise eligible.
BLIND JUDGING: Every measure is taken to ensure that the adjudication is a blind judging process, i.e. the identity of the entrants remains unknown to the adjudicators. In the case of the literary and music sections, no names are attached to the entries. In the case of the visual arts section, any names attached to the pieces, including signatures on the work itself, are hidden. Because we live in a relatively small artistic community, the style of a piece may be an indication to an adjudicator that it is the work of a particular artist known to them. In such cases, adjudicators are asked not to disclose the identity of an entrant to the other adjudicators.
RELEASE OF NAMES OF ADJUDICATORS: A list of the names of the adjudicators is released to the general public at the time the winners are announced. Adjudicators are asked to restrict the awareness of their participation in the judging of the Arts and Letters Awards to immediate family members, until such time as the list of names of the adjudicators is released.
WRITTEN ADJUDICATIONS: For those entrants who request it, adjudicators are required to complete a brief written adjudication to be returned to the entrant following the end of the adjudication process. If there is more than one adjudicator in a section, the task of writing the comments is shared between adjudicators.
While adjudicators may have their own methods of arriving at decisions, they are encouraged to consider an entry’s demonstration of the following:
artistic skill
artistic vision
innovation and imagination
contribution to the artistic practice in that genre/discipline
