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THE JUDGING PROCESS
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ROUND 1: NOMINEE JUDGING
All Orange County high school arts teachers are invited to evaluate applications and choose the semifinalists.
Teachers evaluate nominees in 2 steps:
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REVIEW AND RANK: Teachers are sent links to review and rank the materials submitted in the student applications including all written statements, resumes, and links to student performances/portfolios.
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CHOOSE THE TOP 16: Second, we meet with teachers face-to-face on Zoom to pick the top 16 students in each discipline with the help of the rankings.
The Zoom panels convene in early- to mid- February and semifinalists are notified individually.
Semifinalists are formally announced by The Orange County Register in mid-April.
ROUND 2: SEMIFINALIST JUDGING
Professional artists, university arts faculty and arts organization representatives are invited to interview semifinalists.
Semifinalists present their artform and participate in a conversation with the judges.
After interviewing all of the semifinalists, these judges talk about the artists they met and by consensus, choose the finalists and Artists of the Year.
These panels convene in person in late-March, early-April.
Finalists and Artists of the Year are formally announced by The Orange County Register in late-April.
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JUDGING CRITERIA
An Artist of the Year is an outstanding high school junior or senior in Orange County, nominated by their school's arts teachers or private instructors. These students don’t just show talent and technique. They are blossoming into artists—curious, driven, and brave enough to explore new ideas and challenge themselves.
While we recognize and celebrate skill, we're especially drawn to unique artistic voices who show imagination and meaningful exploration. Equally important are growth and purpose. We value artists who evolve, push their boundaries, and create with impact. And above all, we look for that spark, the undefinable quality that makes you root for them. It shines through in their work and in the way they speak about what they do.
Our judges begin with basic scoring, but the magic happens in discussion. They dive into learning about each student as a whole artist and collectively decide who truly stands out.
What specifically do we look for when we choose Artists of the Year? When we consider artistry, we focus on these four areas:
TALENT & TECHNIQUE
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Artists demonstrate talent.
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Artists' talents have been developed through training which translates into strong technique.
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Artists show complexity in their technique.
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Artists have aptitude in a variety of styles and abilities.
ARTISTIC VISION
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Artists' unique vision and voice is expressed through their art form.
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Artists create with a strong sense of imagination and creative expression in their art form.
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Artists explore ideas through their art form.
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Artists demonstrate an understanding of the intellectual content in their work created.
PURPOSE, GROWTH,
& IMPACT
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Artists create with a broader sense of purpose, seeking to express inner thoughts beyond the basic utility of their work.
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Artists demonstrate growth in their art form and have an understanding of their personal artistic growth.
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Artists seek to impact others through their work.
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Artists have a sense of what they want to explore and contribute to the world via their art form.
HEART
the intangibles
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There is something undefinable about these artists that makes you root for them.
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Artists are passionate about their art form.
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Artists have eloquence and insight when speaking about their art form.
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ROUND 1: Nominee Judging
After all applications from nominees have been received, they are passed on to judges for review online. The Round 1 judges choose the semifinalists.
All high school arts teachers in Orange County are invited to evaluate the applications from nominees in Round 1. Any teacher, whether they have nominated or not, may be a part of the evaluation process.
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No teacher is prevented from participating. In 2025, we invited 991 teachers to participate. We have the capacity to include them all if every one chose to evaluate our nominees.
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Typically, 10 to 20 teachers (sometimes more) volunteer to review and rank the applications.
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Teachers judge in their discipline of expertise. Theater teachers evaluate theater nominees, visual arts teachers evaluate visual arts nominees, etc.
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All nominators are volunteers, donating their time to evaluate applications.
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YES.
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All high school arts teachers are invited to review and rank other students. Because teachers who do not nominate are not inclined to volunteer to evaluate these applications, most teachers who judge have also nominated students.
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Teachers will NOT review and rank their own student(s), but can review and rank other students.
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All teachers (except parents) are be invited to participate in the Zoom conversation where we choose the top 16 students.
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Yes, BUT.... only if the parent is a high school arts teacher.
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Parents and teachers do NOT review and rank their own student(s), but they can review and rank other students.
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Parents of nominees will NOT be invited to participate in the Zoom conversation where we choose the top 16 students.
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Yes, as long as your have expertise in the artform you would like to volunteer to judge.
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To volunteer, email us at ocartistoftheyear@aoy.scng.com. Send any materials that will help us to understand your expertise. (For instance, a resume, online portfolio, bio on an arts org site, etc.)
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Ranking the applications is the FIRST PASS at student work.
When ranking the applications, judges receive the following instructions:
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Please rank each student on a scale from 1 to 4, with 4 being "definitely an Artist of the Year."
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Each student should be considered on her/his/their own merit.
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When the panel meets, we use a student's average rank as a starting point for the discussion, so the more nuanced you are with your rank, the truer the scores will be.
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You will NOT rank any student you nominated and/or have taught.
While we ask judges to take into consideration all of the attributes of an artist as outlined on the WHAT IS AN ARTIST OF THE YEAR? page when ranking, this is a first pass at your work and due to the volume of applications being reviewed, most teachers base these initial rankings off of the video/portofolio.
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We prefer that student's don't highlight their school name when presenting their videos/portfolios so that the judges are not swayed in their evaluation when judging students.
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A student's high school is not listed when we share the students' applications with the judges. However, if a student mentions her/his/their school in the video, portfolio, statements, or resume, we are unable to omit that information.
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All teachers who ranked the applications are also invited to participate in an in-person Zoom conversation. Typically, 5 to 10 teachers participate in this conversation.
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The rankings are averaged (throwing out the top and bottom score for each artist) and are used as a STARTING POINT for a conversation about the nominees. (Due the the volume of nominations we cannot discuss all student. The rankings help us identify the top tier.)
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The discussion starts by looking at the students who have an average rank of 3.5 and above (usually about 30 students per discipline.) Any teacher present may request to review any student on the list, regardless of their ranking.
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We whittle the list down to a max of 16 semifinalists. Usually the top 10 are obvious choices. To round out the group, we take a deeper look at ALL of the materials submitted and we use our time together to discuss the merits of each nominee under consideration.
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At minimum, two (2) DIVISION 2 students will be selected as semifinalists.
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ROUND 2: Semifinalist Judging
The semifinalists are invited to perform/present their work during an in-person interview in front of a panel of professional artists, university arts faculty and arts organization representatives. This panel chooses the finalists and Artists of the Year.
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Students will be interviewed by a panel of professional artists, university arts faculty and arts organization representitives.
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Sometimes, high school arts teachers are also invited to participate on these panels if they do not have a student named as a semifinalist that year.
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All nominators are volunteers, donating their time to evaluate applications.
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NO.
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We only allow teachers to participate in ROUND 2 who DO NOT have students named as semifinalists.
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YES, as long as your have expertise in the artform you would like to volunteer to judge.
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Judges must commit to the full time required to interview all students and the post-conversation to pick the top students. This process takes approximately 5 to 6 hours.
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To volunteer, email us at ocartistoftheyear@aoy.scng.com. Send any materials that will help us to understand your expertise. (For instance, a resume, online portfolio, bio on an arts org site, etc.)
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