Soulard Stronger Together

By entering this contest, participants agree to the Official Rules and Technical Requirements:

• Art submissions MUST incorporate the Mardi Gras, Inc. 2025 theme: “Soulard Celebrates Food”. While artist interpretation is somewhat flexible, if your artwork does not obviously incorporate the theme, your submission could be rejected.
• Submissions must be original content created by the artist and must not contain any elements that are protected by someone else’s copyright or otherwise subject to third-party intellectual property or proprietary rights.
• Once submitted, your artwork will become the full property of the Soulard Business Association, and can be modified without your permission or input. Modifications can include, but are not limited to, color changes, addition of text, and cropping. 
• The Board reserves the right, in its discretion, to disqualify any submission that is interpreted as offensive, obscene, or containing copyrighted material.

Judging:

• The eight-member Board of the Soulard Business Association will serve as the panel of Judges. The Executive Director, who is a non-voting member, will exclusively monitor the Historic Soulard e-mail account to preserve the anonymity of the artists and ensure judge impartiality. If you have questions, please email info@historicsoulard.com.
• On Voting Day, the Executive Director will present the Board with copies of the artwork designated by a number. The Board, not including the Executive Director, will vote on the winning submission. 
• The Board will Judge the submissions based on: (1) originality; (2) creativity; (3) incorporation of the official theme; and (4) representation of Soulard.
• The Winner will be announced at the 2024 Soulard Oktoberfest on Saturday, October 8th. 

Technical Requirements for submission:

• Submissions shall be sent electronically to info@historicsoulard.com with the subject line: “2025 Mardi Gras Art Submission.” 
• E-mail must include your full name, phone number, and address. 
• Art must incorporate the following text:

Soulard Mardi Gras

St. Louis, Missouri (or St. Louis, MO)

January 6 – March 1st, 2025

• Art must be in 18” x 24” portrait orientation.
• Artwork may be full color – however, if design is selected, artist must work with the Soulard Business Association to develop a version using no more than 6 colors (including black and white) for t-shirt and hoodie screen prints. If applicable, the 6-color version will be due by October 31st 2025. The original artwork, if more than 6 colors, will be used for the poster design.
• The following high-quality digital file formats will be accepted: JPEG, Vector (.SVG or .AI) or PNG. 
• Resolution should be at least 300 dpi. 
• Non-electronic/physical copies of artwork will not be accepted during the submission period in order to preserve anonymity of the artist to the Board. It is the Artist’s responsibility to electronically scan or photograph any work you have done on canvas, paper, or other medium. Make sure your artwork is depicted clearly in a way that can be reproduced digitally.
• If your submission is chosen, you agree to provide your original artwork to the Soulard Business Association, which will become the property of the Soulard Business Association. If you do not provide your original artwork within seven days of being announced as the winner, the second place artist will automatically replace your winning submission.  
• Submissions are limited to two per artist. 
• Submission should not have any visible watermarks, signatures, or personally identifiable information.