General Guidelines
Participants
Participation for the Ocean County Teen Arts Festival is for students ages 13-19 attending Ocean County middle and high schools in grades 8-12, including public, private, parochial, and home schools.
Ocean County Festival and NJ State Festival
School registration for the NJ State Teen Arts Festival is separate from the Ocean County Teen Arts Festival. Schools will be notified in the week after adjudication if they have been selected to showcase their work at the State Festival.
Workshops
Advance registration is highly recommended. Online registration will open the week prior to the festival, and a sign-up sheet will be present in the Grunin Center lobby and outside the workshop classroom the day of the festival.
Please make every attempt to arrive on time to workshop sessions you have signed up for.
Adjudication Guidelines for Performance Categories: Dance, Instrumental Music, Musical Theater, Theater, and Vocal Music
Group Sizes
Groups are organized into two categories:
Large: 16 or more students
Small: 1 to 15 students
How to Submit a Large File Entry
For virtual submissions, please share a direct link to download the video file to estratton@ocean.edu. For files that are 2GB in size or larger, please use wetransfer.com to send your work.
Large Group Guidelines
- Each School may submit a maximum of 2 Large Groups for each performance category
- Each Large Group may submit 1 entry
- The maximum length of each submission is 10 minutes
- The following instruments are available on campus for large Instrumental Music groups to use in their adjudications. Please request to use these instruments on your entry form.
- 4 Ludwig Timpani
- Musser 3½ Octave Xylophone
- Musser 4 Octave Marimba
- Gong
- Acoustic Piano
- Remo Bass Drum
- Yamaha 3 Octave Glockenspiel
- Musser 2½ Octave Metal Xylophone
- Riggs Tubular Bells
Small Group Guidelines
- A maximum of 20 small group entries may be submitted per school in each performance category.
- Each soloist may submit only 1 entry per category, but may appear a second time in a category if participating as part of a separate small group.
- The maximum length of each submission is 5 minutes.
- Small Instrumental Music groups must provide their own instruments.
Adjudication Guidelines for Creative Writing and Poetry
Guidelines
- A maximum of 8 entries may be submitted per school.
- Prose pieces are limited to 4 pages maximum.
- Poetry is limited to 4 poems or 4 pages, whichever is greater.
- No written comments should appear on the work.
How to Submit
- Entries should be emailed to estratton@ocean.edu
- Accepted formats are: .doc or .pdf
- File names should include the student’s last name, school, and either Poetry or Prose. For example: Stratton-OceanCountyCollege-Prose
- The maximum file size is 1MB
Layout
- 8 ½” x 11” page in portrait orientation
- 1” margins on all sides
- Font: 12pt. Times New Roman
- Title at the top left of the page
- Page numbers at the bottom right
- Every entry must include in the upper right-hand corner of the 1st page:
- Student’s Name
- School and Grade Level
Adjudication Guidelines for Filmmaking
Guidelines
- A maximum of 3 entries may be submitted per school.
- The maximum length of each submission is 10 minutes.
- Entries may be worked on by individuals or groups.
How to Submit
- For files smaller than 2GB in size, share a direct link to download the video file to estratton@ocean.edu.
- For files that are 2GB in size or larger, please use wetransfer.com to send your work to estratton@ocean.edu
Adjudication Guidelines for Visual Arts
General Visual Arts Guidelines
- All artwork to be exhibited in-person must be provided to our staff by March 17th. Artwork will be exhibited during the week of the festival from Monday, March 20th through Friday, March 24th. Any uncollected artwork after March 24th will be stored by Ocean County College until picked up by a school representative. Art nominated to be submitted to the NJ State Teen Arts Festival will remain on display until after the State Festival concludes, at which point arrangements will be made for their collection
- All artwork must follow general copyright and plagiarism rules.
2D Guidelines
- A maximum of 20 2D entries may be submitted per school
- All student artwork must be no larger than 18”x24”
- Have an attached standardized label on the bottom right corner of the artwork
- The label will be provided to teachers after their school registers
3D Guidelines
- A maximum of 5 3D entries may be submitted per school
- All student artwork must be no larger than 18”x24”
- Have an attached standardized label on or near the bottom right corner of the artwork
- The label will be provided to teachers after their school registers