Purpose

The purpose of the Governor’s Awards in the Arts is to recognize, with the commonwealth’s highest honors in the arts, the extraordinary and significant contributions of artists, arts organizations, volunteers, schools, educators, local governments, legislators, and corporate citizens, to the arts in Kentucky or the nation.

Goals

The goals of the Governor’s Awards in the Arts are:

• To select, on an annual basis, exemplary recipients for the nine award categories
• To honor the annual recipients in a public recognition ceremony
• To expand and diversify arts advocacy

Who May Nominate

Organizations, businesses or individuals from within or outside of Kentucky may make nominations. Nominators play a very important role in bringing nominations to the attention of the Governor.

Eligibility

Eligible nominations, with the exception of the National Award, must be full-time residents of Kentucky, and must meet the following specific requirements in each of the award categories:

Nomination Deadline

Nominations must be submitted by 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, March 29, 2024. If the arts council does not receive the nomination by the deadline date, it will be considered ineligible.

Past Governor’s Awards in the Arts recipients and deceased persons are ineligible for nomination in any category.

Performance Expectations

Your nomination will be reviewed using the following expectations as applied to each award category description:

• Personification of the value of the arts
• Nominee has demonstrated their/its support of artists and organizations in providing arts activities

Nomination Narrative (Required)

One page narrative for your nominee, explaining your reasons for making the nomination.

Introduction of Nominee (Required)

In two pages or less, provide a concise bio of the nominee, if an individual person, or a brief history and mission, if an organization. You may upload a resume for individual nominees.

Letters of Support

Provide letters of support from individuals with relevant connection to the nominee.

Letters should be no more than one page each, and there is a limit of up to five letters, for a total of give 8.5×11-inch pages. Exceeding the five-page limit will disqualify the nomination.

Please encourage letter writers to be concise. Letters do not need to be submitted with letterhead, but they do need to be signed by the writer. Letters should be scanned an collected into a single PDF.

Other Supporting Material

Feel free to submit other supporting documents (photos, PDFs of concert or theater programs, newspaper clippings, etc.). Please note that if you are submitting a PDF document with multiple pages, you must limit that document to 20 8.5×11-inch pages. PDFs exceeding 20 pages will disqualify the nomination.

You may also submit up to five supporting videos or audio. Links to the videos must be hosted on a service such as YouTube or audio on a service like SoundCloud.

Nominations will be accepted via this online form.

Detailed support materials are a valuable component of nominations. Nominators can include up to five one-page letters of support (page size 8.5×11 inches) for a nominee. Additionally, nominators can include up to 20 8.5×11-inch pages of support materials (photos, programs from performances, news clippings, etc.). Those pages may include no more than five links to audio or video samples of five minutes or less.

Nominators should carefully prioritize and select support materials. Audio or video samples of work can be included as links within the support materials.

Nominators are welcome to submit nominations in more than one category. A separate nomination form is required for each category.

Nominations will be kept active for three award cycles. Multiple nominations for the same nominee in the same year do not increase the nominee’s competitiveness for an award.

Nominees may be nominated in more than one category, but the nomination and support materials (including letters of support) must be reflective of the category in which the individual or group is being nominated. For example, if you are nominating someone for the Artist Award and the Community Arts Award, the nomination packets cannot simply be copied and submitted separately. One nomination must make a case for the Artist Award, and the other must make a case for the Community Arts Award. Nominations in multiple categories that do not follow these instructions will be ruled ineligible.

Nominations must be submitted by 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, March 29, 2024. If the arts council does not receive the nomination by the deadline date, it will be considered ineligible.