All Guidelines and Important Dates for Long Island’s Best 2024-2025 are below.
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Questions? Email the Education Team at education@heckscher.org or call 631.380.3292. We look forward to a wonderful year and we can’t wait to see what your students create!
INSPIRATION ARTWORK & INTRO. VIDEO
Students may choose a work of art from the following two exhibits to be inspired by for Long Island’s Best 2025.
- The Body Politic: Long Island Biennial 2024
- George Grosz: The Stick Men
To view images of all of the artwork in these exhibits, visit this password-protected page: https://www.heckscher.org/li-best-2025-video-artwork-images/Â (The password to this page is emailed to all participating teachers when booking a field trip and is also provided once the School Registration Form is complete. If you cannot locate this password/need it to be resent to you, please email us at education@heckscher.org or call us at 631.380.3292.) This password-protected page also includes an LI Best Introductory Video from our Education Staff that we recommend all participating teachers and students watch prior to creating their artwork entries.
GUIDELINES
ONLINE ARTWORK SUBMISSION
Teachers DO NOT NEED TO DELIVER ALL ARTWORK entries in person this year. Jurying will be done from digital images and videos.
Students must submit several images of their artwork in their Student Entry Forms. Depending on the nature of the artwork, a video may also be recommended or required.
Once the exhibition is juried, teachers will deliver ONLY the artwork accepted into the exhibition, which MUST BY READY TO HANG. Awards will be determined AFTER all artwork has been delivered. For details, see Submission Requirements and Accepted Artwork Guidelines for Framing below.
- Students must complete a Student Entry Form with the following:
- Student contact information
- Teacher contact information
- School name and grade level
- Artwork title and medium
- Name of exhibition, artwork title, and artist name that inspired the student
- Student’s artist statement explaining their work and how it was inspired by a work of art from the Museum. This statement must be between 50 and 350 words in length.
- Images/Videos & Dimensions for jurying purposes:
- 2-D artwork
- 2 Images: 1 full view, 1 detail view.
- Must be in .jpg or .jpeg format
- Maximum 5 MB each
- Dimensions:
- Maximum height 48″ (including frame)
- Maximum width 30″ (including frame)
- 2 Images: 1 full view, 1 detail view.
- Â 3-D and 3-D relief artwork
- 3 Images: 2 full view (from different angles), 1 detail view.
- Must be in .jpg or .jpeg format.
- Maximum 5 MB each
- Dimensions:
- Maximum height 60″
- Maximum width 24″
- Maximum depth 24″
- A video is optional for 3-D work to show it from multiple angles. (If the file is too large to upload in the form, we ask that you please share the file via a Google Drive [or other equivalent file-sharing app] link either in the Student Entry Form or directly with our email education@heckscher.org. This must be done before the Student Entry Form deadline.)
- 3 Images: 2 full view (from different angles), 1 detail view.
- Â Kinetic (moving) or interactive artwork
- A video is required to show the movement/interactive aspect of the work.
- File must be in .mov or .mp4 format, max 20 MB (if using the Student Entry Form to submit it).
- If the file is too large to upload in the Student Entry Form, please share the file via a Google Drive [or other equivalent file-sharing app] link either in the Student Entry Form or directly with our email address education@heckscher.org. This must be done before the Student Entry Form deadline. (Any questions/concerns, please email education@heckscher.org)
- Video/Films
- Video must be in .mov or .mp4 format, max 20 MB.
- If the file is too large to upload in the Student Entry Form, please share the file via a Google Drive [or other equivalent file-sharing app] link either in the Student Entry Form or directly with our email address education@heckscher.org. This must be done before the Student Entry Form Deadline. (Any questions/concerns, please email education@heckscher.org)
- 2-D artwork
- Students must be enrolled in grades 9-12 at a participating school in Nassau or Suffolk County, New York. (Schools must complete a School Registration Form and pay a $75 registration fee by November 22, 2024 in order to participate.)
- Each student may submit only one work of art. (Collaborative pieces by more than one student are welcome and count as one work of art.)
- Painting, drawing, collage, printmaking, photography, computer graphics, sculpture, mixed media, fashion, and video artwork may be submitted.
- Schools may only submit the number of entries their school has been allotted. Completing the School Registration Form and paying the $75 fee earns the school 4 artwork entries. (More entries may be earned by scheduling programs with the museum. Learn more about programs.)
- Artwork must be based on professional works of art shown in The Heckscher Museum during the 2024-2025 school year and created and selected for submission under the guidance of the school’s art teacher(s). Students may select from the following two exhibitions. Images of all of the artwork in these exhibits are available online at https://www.heckscher.org/li-best-2025-video-artwork-images/ (Please note that this page requires a password, which is emailed to all participating teachers. If you cannot locate this password/need it to be resent to you, please email education@heckscher.org or call 631.380.3292 and we will provide it for you.)
- The Body Politic: Long Island Biennial 2024
- George Grosz: The Stick MenÂ
ONLY the artwork accepted into the exhibition will need to be hand-delivered by the art teacher to the Museum. This artwork must be delivered ready to display on March 10 or 11, 2024. All artwork must have a completed Artwork Label/Photo Release Form attached to it.
- Two-dimensional/ Wall-hanging artwork:
- Work must be ready to hang with hardware and/or wiring on the back.
- Works on paper must have glass or Plexiglas.
- All frames must be solid black or white.
- Three-dimensional artwork:
- The Museum will supply pedestals, as needed.
- Video/Film:
- Videos/films accepted into the exhibition do not need to be hand-delivered, as the files will already be submitted in the Student Entry Form.
*The Museum will not accept work that is unstable, damaged, or does not meet specified conditions and guidelines. The Museum is not responsible for damage that may occur during transportation. Students are advised to protect artwork during travel.
- Students are invited to submit process/behind-the-scenes audio and video for jurying.
- Select audio/video of exhibiting students will be featured in the Museum alongside their artwork via the Museum’s Digital Guide in Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app.Â
- An Audio/Video Challenge Application Form will be sent to all exhibiting students once jurying is complete.
IMPORTANT DATES
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Each school planning to have their students participate in Long Island’s Best 2025 must complete a School Registration Form and pay a non-refundable $75 registration fee by November 22, 2024. This entitles the school to 4 student entries, created and selected under the guidance of the art teacher(s). Only one form is required per school. Names and email addresses for all potentially participating teachers are required. Once the form and fee are received, all teacher(s) will be added to the Long Island’s Best 2025 e-mail list.Â
Student Entry Forms are due by 11:59 pm on Thursday, February 6, 2025. See Submission Requirements above, which outline the information required in this form. Students must submit images and the dimensions of their work with this form for jurying purposes. See details above.
On or before Friday, February 7, all participating art teachers will be emailed a list of the names of the students who submitted entry forms from their school, confirming what online entries the Museum has received for jurying.
The exhibition will be juried using the images and videos, dimensions, and artist statements submitted in the Student Entry Forms. Approximately 80 works of art will be selected from the hundreds of works of art submitted.
All students and teachers will be emailed with the results of the jurying process on Friday, February 28, 2025. Long Island’s Best is a juried competition, and not all artwork submitted will be accepted for the exhibition. All students and teachers whose work is not accepted into the exhibition will receive Certificates of Participation in the mail at their schools.
Once teachers learn these results, they must prepare all work accepted into the show for delivery on Monday and Tuesday, March 10 & 11, 2- 5 pm. See Accepted Artwork Guidelines for FRAMING above.
Hand delivery of all artwork in the exhibition by teachers (not students) will take place on Monday and Tuesday, March 10 & 11, 2 – 5 pm. All artwork must:
- Have a completed Artwork Label/Photo Release Form attached to it.
- Be ready for display/hanging. See Accepted Artwork Guidelines for FRAMING above.
Students who receive awards, as well as their teachers, will be notified of these awards on or before March 1, 2024 via email and/or phone. These students and their friends, family, and teachers are invited to attend an Awards Ceremony on Saturday, April 5, 2024.
All student artwork in the exhibition will be displayed with an object label that includes their name, school, grade level, art teacher’s name, the name of the artwork that inspired them, an image of that artwork, and any awards received. An accompanying Long Island’s Best 2025 Zine, available to all visitors for free, will contain each student’s information as well as their artist statements explaining their work and process. Any students with audio or video content will have a Bloomberg Connects icon and Lookup number on the label next to their artwork for visitors to access their content in the app using their phones.
In addition to the exhibition in the Museum, images of all student artwork and all of this information will also be posted on the Museum’s website, heckscher.org.
All exhibiting artists and their friends, family, and teachers are invited to a special Preview Day on Saturday, April 5, 2025. Award-winning students and their friends, family, and teachers are additionally invited to attend an Awards Ceremony that evening to be formally presented with their awards.
All artwork that is not being featured in the display at Mitchells in Huntington must be picked up by teachers (not students) on either Tuesday or Wednesday, May 27 or 28, from 2 – 5 pm. No appointments are necessary. Any questions, please email us at education@heckscher.org.