City of San Antonio Accepting Nominations for 2019 Distinction in the Arts Awards

The City of San Antonio is now accepting nominations for its 2019 Distinction in the Arts Awards. Since the program was established by San Antonio council member Roberto C. Treviño in 2015, it has honored 16 of the city’s creatives.

In the program’s first year, Distinction in the Arts Awards were given in five categories: visual art, literary arts, music, supporting organization, and dance. The 2016 and 2017 years saw some category omissions, while others were added, including: arts administrator, video, and patron/foundation. As 2018 marked the year of San Antonio’s Tricentennial, rather than selecting a new round of winners, the city instead chose to honor all past awardees with an evening of performances and readings. A list of past visual art awardees is below:

2015: Vincent Valdez
2016: Jesse Trevino
2017: César Martínez

With the 2019 Distinction in the Arts Awards comes a marked change — this will be the first time awardees will be nominated by the public. After that nomination period closes, the San Antonio Arts Commission will choose who will represent the city in 2019.

Nominations will be accepted from December 3, 2018 through February 1, 2019. Although nominees are not required to be San Antonio residents, it’s stipulated that “the significant contributions [made by nominees in their fields] must have been for the benefit of the San Antonio community and its residents.”

More details are below. To nominate someone, go here.

Criteria

For Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Literary Arts, Culinary Arts and Music categories:
• Nominee demonstrates sustainable history, artistic excellence and distinction in chosen discipline
• Nominee’s work demonstrates creativity, originality, and is thought provoking
• Nominee’s influence on other artists, length and depth of career and the body of work, innovation and superiority in style and technique
• Nominee’s work samples and supporting materials clearly demonstrate a high standard of artistic excellence
• Nominee has a demonstrated history of knowledge and expertise in chosen discipline
• Nominee has an extensive artistic history in San Antonio in chosen discipline and will be long remembered as an artistic pioneer

For Arts Patronage and Arts Administration categories:
• Nominee’s general involvement in the arts and impact on the San Antonio Arts Community
• Nominee’s leadership in major artistic and cultural initiatives
• Nominee’s work to increase funding and resources for the arts
• Nominee’s effort to increase public awareness of the arts
• Nominee’s effort to increase access to the arts for underserved individuals and/or communities