Brush & Tell Art Competition Official Rules

Effective November 1st, 2026.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER, VOTE OR WIN. A PURCHASE, BID OR SALE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. OPEN ONLY TO STUDENTS 18 OR OLDER WHO ARE CURRENTLY ENROLLED AT ONE OF THE TEN SCHOOLS IN SECTION 3. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

The artists who enter vote, and most votes wins. Every artist who enters gets two votes. These Rules explain who can enter, how voting works, the $2,000 prize, how you can sell your entered work and keep 100 percent of the sale, and the 85 percent you keep in 2027 on your other sales made directly on Brush & Tell once your entry is approved.

1. Sponsor and the Terms of Service

1.1 Sponsor. The Brush & Tell Art Competition (the "Competition") is sponsored and administered by Brush & Tell, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company ("Brush & Tell," "we," "us"). Mailing address: 1500 N Grant St Suite N, Denver, CO 80203. Contact: info@brushandtell.com.

1.2 No affiliation. The Competition is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or affiliated with, any of the schools named in Section 3, Apple, Google, Instagram or any other company, or any government body. School names are used only to describe who may enter.

1.3 These Rules and the Terms. These Official Rules (the "Rules") are the Official Rules of the Competition under the Brush & Tell Terms of Service (the "Terms"), published at brushandtell.com/legal/terms. Every person who enters (an "Entrant") must hold an account and accept the Terms and the Brush & Tell Privacy Policy. Under Section 10.1 of the Terms, these Rules control over the Terms to the extent of any conflict about the Competition. Words with capital letters that these Rules do not define have the meanings given in the Terms.

2. No purchase necessary

Entering and voting are free. No purchase, payment or bid, and no listing or sale of any work, is necessary to enter, to vote or to win, and none will improve an Entrant's chances. The optional auction in Section 6 has no effect on the vote or on the result. The Competition is void where prohibited or restricted by law.

3. Who may enter

You may enter if, on the day you submit your entry, all of the following are true:

3.1 Age. You are 18 years of age or older.

3.2 Enrollment. You are currently enrolled as a student at one of these ten schools: Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design; University of Colorado Denver; Metropolitan State University of Denver; University of Colorado Boulder; Colorado State University; University of Wyoming; University of New Mexico; University of Utah; Brigham Young University; Arizona State University. "Currently enrolled" means you are enrolled as a student at the school and are registered for at least one course there on the day you submit your entry. A student on a leave of absence, or who is not registered for any course, is not currently enrolled. You do not need to be an art major or enrolled in an art program.

3.3 School email. You hold an email address that the school issued to you as a current student (an alumni address does not qualify) and can receive a verification code at it. We verify it by sending a one-time code to that address.

3.4 Account. You have a Brush & Tell account in your own legal name, you have accepted the Terms and the Privacy Policy, and either your artist profile has been approved or you have no artist profile yet. If you have no artist profile, you set one up when you enter, as Section 5.1 describes, and you do not need to complete a separate artist application. If you have applied separately to sell on Brush & Tell and that application is still pending, you may enter once it is approved. An account whose separate application was declined, or whose artist profile is suspended, may not enter unless Brush & Tell later approves it.

3.5 Not excluded. You are not a member, manager, employee, contractor or paid ambassador of Brush & Tell, LLC, or a member of the immediate family (spouse, partner, parent, child, sibling) or household of any of them. Employees and faculty of the schools may enter if they are also enrolled students who meet Sections 3.1 to 3.4.

3.6 Proof. Before any prize is paid, the winner must sign an affidavit of eligibility, provide proof that the winner was currently enrolled under Section 3.2 on the day the winner submitted the entry (a transcript, an enrollment verification, or a student ID with a term record that shows it) and provide the tax form in Section 10. A winner who cannot do so within the time in Section 9.2 forfeits the prize. A winner who has graduated or left the school since entering remains eligible.

3.7 When you become an Entrant. You become an Entrant when you submit your entry, whether or not it is later approved, and Section 12.6 applies to you from then. Section 12.7 applies to you once your entry is approved, as that Section provides. If your entry is declined under Section 5.3, or you withdraw it under Section 5.5, Section 12.6 no longer applies to the sales you make after that, Section 12.7 does not apply to them, and the New Artist Rate in Section 9.13 of the Terms applies to them as that Section provides. A sale you made while you were an Entrant does not count as your first sale under that Section. If you correct and resubmit a declined entry, you are an Entrant again from the time you resubmit it. A disqualification under Section 11 is not a withdrawal under this Section: a disqualified Entrant remains an Entrant, Section 12.6 continues to apply, and Section 12.7 no longer applies.

4. Dates

Entries open on November 1st, 2026 and close on December 31st, 2026 at 11:59 pm Mountain Time. Voting runs from January 1st to January 7th, 2027. The Competition ends when the winner is announced, on or about January 11th, 2027. Brush & Tell's server clock is the official clock of the Competition. Brush & Tell may extend a stage for a technical failure on its side by notice at brushandtell.com/contest; it will not shorten one.

5. How to enter

5.1 Steps. During the entry period, go to brushandtell.com/contest, create or sign in to your Brush & Tell account, verify your school email with the one-time code, and submit exactly one entry: one original work of art you made, with at least one photograph of it, its title, medium and dimensions, and a short statement if you wish. If you have no artist profile, the entry form also asks for the artist name you want shown with your work. That entry is your application to become a Seller under Section 9.1 of the Terms, and Brush & Tell approves your artist profile when you submit it. If Brush & Tell can't accept the artist name you give, you may choose another.

5.2 One entry. One entry per person, whatever the number of schools you attend or email addresses you hold. If we receive more than one entry from the same person, only the first complete entry counts. Group or collaborative works are not eligible.

5.3 Review. Brush & Tell reviews each entry within 24 hours of submission. Approval of an artist profile under Section 5.1 is not approval of an entry. An automated system first checks the entry's images and text against Section 7.4 of these Rules and Section 9.2 of the Terms; an entry it clears is approved, and anything it flags is reviewed by a person against Section 7 of these Rules and Section 9.2 of the Terms. Only a person declines an entry. An entry that a person finds does not meet those requirements is declined with the reason, and you may correct and resubmit it before the entry period closes. If your entry is declined, you may ask for a person at Brush & Tell to review the decision by writing to info@brushandtell.com, and a person will review it. An entry submitted on December 31st may be approved after voting has opened; it joins the Competition gallery when it is approved, and votes already cast are not changed. Approval is not a judgment of artistic merit, and it does not confirm that an entry meets every requirement of Section 7; Section 11 still applies.

5.4 Your Entered Work. An approved entry (your "Entered Work") is shown in the Competition gallery and can be voted on. You keep the work; nothing is shipped to us. Your Entered Work may not be listed or sold at a fixed price until the Competition has ended. During the Competition, the only way it may be sold is the optional auction in Section 6.

5.5 Withdrawal. You may withdraw your entry at any time before voting opens. After voting opens, an entry may be withdrawn only by writing to info@brushandtell.com, and a withdrawn entry cannot win. An Entered Work that is in an optional auction may be withdrawn from the auction at any time before the first bid is placed. Once a bid has been placed, Brush & Tell tells you so, and the auction can no longer be withdrawn: it runs to its close under Section 6, even if you withdraw your entry from the Competition. A withdrawn entry is not eligible for the 100 percent sale in Section 12, except in an optional auction that runs to its close under this Section, which Section 6.7 governs. Section 3.7 says how a withdrawal affects your other sales.

6. The optional auction during the Competition

6.1 Entirely optional. After your entry has been submitted and approved, you may choose to offer your Entered Work in a timed online auction on the Brush & Tell platform during the Competition. The auction is optional. Choosing it, or not choosing it, gives you no advantage or disadvantage in the Competition, and you may enter, vote and win without ever offering your work for sale.

6.2 When auctions open. Optional auctions open when Brush & Tell makes them available on the Brush & Tell platform, with no separate announcement. Brush & Tell does not promise an opening date.

6.3 How the auction works. You set the starting bid. There is no reserve price: once your auction has opened, your Entered Work sells to the highest valid bid at the close. Every optional auction closes at 7:00 pm Mountain Time on Saturday, January 16th, 2027, the first day of the finale weekend, unless a bid in its final two minutes extends it as the auction terms provide. Bids are binding and are shown on the listing and wherever the Competition shows your Entered Work, including during voting. You may withdraw your Entered Work from the auction only as Section 5.5 provides.

6.4 Who may bid. Anyone with a Brush & Tell account who has saved a payment method and accepted the auction terms in Section 6.6 may bid, except that you may not bid on your own Entered Work.

6.5 Bids never affect the vote. Bids and sale prices have no effect on the vote, the tally or the result. You may not bid on your own Entered Work; arrange, encourage or allow anyone to bid on it for you or in coordination with you; or offer anything of value for a bid. A breach of this Section is a breach of these Rules under Section 11.

6.6 Auction terms. Each optional auction is also governed by the auction terms Brush & Tell publishes as Additional Terms under the Terms, which cover binding bids, the minimum bid increments, the automatic charge to the winning bidder at the close, the extension of an auction's close to two minutes after any bid that arrives in its final two minutes, repeated until two minutes pass with no bid, and what happens if the winning bidder's payment fails, and by Sections 5 to 9 of the Terms. If the auction terms conflict with this Section 6 about an optional auction, this Section 6 controls.

6.7 What you receive. If your Entered Work sells in an optional auction, you receive 100 percent of the sale price as Section 12 provides.

7. What you may enter

Your entry must be:

7.1 Original and yours. A work of visual art you created yourself, alone, that you own, that has not been sold, and in which no one else holds rights, except with the written permission Section 7.3 describes. It may be in any medium that produces a physical work (for example painting, drawing, printmaking from your own plate or screen, photography, sculpture, ceramics, textiles or mixed media). A reproduction of someone else's work, a work made from a kit or template, or a work you do not own is not eligible.

7.2 Made by you. Created by you, not generated in whole or in substantial part by an artificial intelligence system, and not a print, reproduction or tracing of an image an artificial intelligence system generated. Digital tools may be used in the process, but the composition and execution of the work must be your own.

7.3 Clear of others' rights. Free of any third party's copyright, trademark, name, likeness or other rights, unless you have written permission that you can show us. Photographs of identifiable people need those people's consent.

7.4 Lawful and suitable. Not obscene, hateful, defamatory, threatening or otherwise unlawful, and not in breach of Section 9.2 of the Terms. A work may be challenging; it may not target a person or group.

7.5 Accurately described. Photographed and described truthfully, including any collaboration, appropriation or assistance you received.

7.6 Ready to sell. If you offer it for sale, it must meet Section 9.2 of the Terms and be ready to display: a work made to hang on a wall must be framed or gallery-wrapped and wired or fitted with hangers, and a work that is not made to hang, such as a sculpture or a ceramic piece, must stand or rest securely on its own or on a base or stand that comes with it. Either way, it must be free of hazards.

Brush & Tell may ask for further images, a short video of the work or other evidence that an entry meets this Section at any time, and may disqualify an entry that does not.

8. Voting

8.1 Who votes. Only Entrants whose entries were approved and not withdrawn or disqualified may vote. There is no public vote and no judge.

8.2 How. During the voting period each Entrant may cast two votes, for any two different approved entries other than the Entrant's own. An Entrant may vote for entries from any of the ten schools, including the Entrant's own school. Each vote counts once; an Entrant may not cast both votes for the same entry. Votes are cast on the Platform from the Entrant's own account. Vote totals are hidden until the tally is verified.

8.3 Voting is optional. An Entrant who does not vote remains an Entrant and may still win.

8.4 No vote trading. You may not offer, give or accept anything of value for a vote, agree with anyone to exchange votes, create or use another person's account to vote, use any automated means to vote, or otherwise interfere with the vote. Encouraging other Entrants to look at your work is allowed; paying or promising anything for their votes is not.

8.5 Bids are not votes. A bid, a purchase or a sale is not a vote and is never counted as one.

9. Choosing the winner and the top five; notification

9.1 Winner. The approved entry with the most valid votes at the close of voting wins. If two or more entries tie for the most valid votes, the entry submitted earliest (by the Platform's record of the time the complete entry was received) wins.

9.2 Notification and documents. Brush & Tell notifies the winner by email to the account address and by phone on or about January 10th, 2027, and announces the winner at brushandtell.com and on its social accounts on or about January 11th, 2027. The announcement is subject to verification under Section 9.4 and to Section 11. To receive the prize, the winner must, within 10 days of the notice, sign and return an affidavit of eligibility and a liability and publicity release, provide proof of enrollment under Section 3.6, and provide the tax form in Section 10.

9.3 Top five. The five approved entries with the most valid votes are named as the top five and receive a featured place on the Platform and in Brush & Tell's promotion during the finale week. There is no limit on the number of entries from one school. If entries tie for a place on the list, the tie goes to the entry submitted earliest, as in Section 9.1. The winner is always on the list.

9.4 Verification. Between the close of voting and the announcement, Brush & Tell verifies the tally and removes votes and entries that breach these Rules, including votes from accounts that did not enter, votes cast in breach of Section 8.4, and votes affected by a disqualification under Section 11. Brush & Tell's verified tally is final, subject to Section 11.

9.5 Odds. The outcome depends on the votes of the Entrants on the merits of the entries, not on chance. The number of Entrants affects the number of votes cast.

9.6 Publicity. Except where prohibited by law, by accepting the prize the winner, and by accepting a place in the top five each of the top five, agrees that Brush & Tell may use their name, school, likeness (from images they provide or appear in on the Platform), the images of their entry and their statements about the Competition in Brush & Tell's promotion, on the Platform, in press materials and on social media, in any medium, without further compensation, for 36 months after the announcement, and afterward in archival and historical references to the Competition.

9.7 Forfeiture. If the winner cannot be reached within 5 days of the first notice, does not return the documents within the time in Section 9.2, is found ineligible, or declines the prize, the prize is forfeited and awarded to the approved entry with the next most valid votes, and so on.

10. The prize

10.1 Amount. One prize: $2,000, paid to the winner by business check or ACH within five business days after Brush & Tell receives the completed documents in Section 9.2. Approximate retail value: $2,000. There is no other prize, no substitution and no transfer of the prize to another person.

10.2 No obligations. The winner is not required to attend any event, make any appearance, travel anywhere, or deliver the winning work to Brush & Tell to receive the prize.

10.3 Taxes. The prize is income to the winner. A winner who is a U.S. person provides IRS Form W-9; a winner who is not a U.S. person provides IRS Form W-8BEN, and Brush & Tell withholds and remits any tax the law requires on a prize paid to a nonresident alien before paying the balance. Brush & Tell issues any information return the law requires. All other taxes on the prize are the winner's responsibility.

11. Disqualification and integrity

11.1 Brush & Tell's right to disqualify. In addition to any other right in these Rules or the Terms, Brush & Tell may, in its sole judgment and at any time, including after voting closes and after the winner is announced, refuse or remove any entry and disqualify any Entrant from the Competition if Brush & Tell considers any content the Entrant submits or posts to be inappropriate, offensive or in poor taste, or if the Entrant breaches these Rules or the Terms.

11.2 Other grounds. Without limiting Section 11.1, Brush & Tell may disqualify an Entrant, an entry or a vote if the Entrant, or anyone acting for the Entrant, has provided false information; tampered with the entry process, the vote or an optional auction; harassed another Entrant; or acted in a way that could bring the Competition into disrepute. Brush & Tell may use vote-pattern and bid-pattern analysis, device and network signals and other reasonable means to detect breaches of Sections 6.5 and 8.4.

11.3 Effect on the Entrant. A disqualified Entrant's entries are withdrawn from the Competition, and the Entrant is not eligible for any prize in it or for the 100 percent sale in Section 12 on any sale not yet completed. A sale is completed when its Order was accepted under Section 5.3 of the Terms before the disqualification. If the Entered Work is in an optional auction, Brush & Tell may cancel the auction, and no bid on it binds any person. Brush & Tell may also suspend or close the Entrant's account under the Terms.

11.4 Effect on votes and the result. Every vote cast for a disqualified entry is void and is not counted, and no Entrant votes again. Votes cast by a disqualified Entrant are also void. The winner and the top five are determined from the remaining valid votes under Section 9. If the winner is disqualified after the winner is announced, the prize is awarded to the approved entry with the next most valid votes, with a tie going to the earlier entry, and so on.

12. Selling your Entered Work and your other work

12.1 After the Competition. Once the Competition has ended, every Entrant whose entry was approved and not withdrawn or disqualified, the winner included, may (but need not) offer the Entered Work for sale on the Brush & Tell platform: at a fixed price; or, if it was not in an optional auction, by joining the auctions that close at 7:00 pm Mountain Time on Saturday, January 16th, 2027; or in any other sale format Brush & Tell makes available. While your Entered Work is in an auction, including an optional auction that runs to its close under Sections 5.5 and 6.3, it may not also be listed at a fixed price.

12.2 You keep 100 percent. When your Entered Work sells on the Brush & Tell platform, in an optional auction under Section 6 or after the Competition under Section 12.1, you receive 100 percent of the sale price, plus any shipping charge you set. Brush & Tell charges no Commission on that sale and bears the payment processing fees, as the Terms provide.

12.3 Venue walls. Section 12.2 applies only to a sale made directly on the Brush & Tell platform. It does not apply to a sale attributed to a partner Venue where your Entered Work is displayed: that sale carries the standard Commission under Section 9.6 of the Terms, from which Brush & Tell pays the Venue's share, and you receive the standard Seller Proceeds. A sale is attributed to a Venue if the buyer scanned the work's label at the Venue within 30 days before buying, or if the work was on display at the Venue when it was bought. Your Entered Work is placed at a Venue only if you agree to the placement.

12.4 Standard terms otherwise apply. Sections 5 to 9 of the Terms apply to every sale of an Entered Work, including setting up a payout account with the Payment Processor before a sale can go live, the hold on your proceeds until delivery and the end of the return period, shipping within 5 business days with tracking and insurance, and the return terms. Brush & Tell collects any sales tax from the buyer.

12.5 Not a prize. The 100 percent sale in Section 12.2 and the 2027 Entrant Rate in Section 12.7 are benefits available to every approved Entrant on the same terms. Neither is a prize, the value of each depends on whether and for how much your work sells, and Brush & Tell makes no promise that any work will sell.

12.6 No New Artist Rate. The New Artist Rate in Section 9.13 of the Terms does not apply to your Entered Work, or to any sale you make after you become an Entrant. Your other sales carry the Commission stated in Section 9.6 of the Terms, except as Section 12.7 provides.

12.7 The 2027 Entrant Rate on your other sales. Once your entry has been approved, you receive 85 percent of the sale price, plus any shipping charge you set, on each sale of a work other than your Entered Work that is made directly on the Brush & Tell platform, if the Order is placed from January 1st, 2027 at 12:00 am to December 31st, 2027 at 11:59 pm Mountain Time while your entry is approved and has not been withdrawn or disqualified: Brush & Tell's Commission on that sale is 15 percent of the sale price (the "2027 Entrant Rate"). The 2027 Entrant Rate is a Promotional Rate under Sections 9.6 and 9.12 of the Terms, and these Rules are its written offer. It applies only to a sale made directly on the Brush & Tell platform: a sale attributed to a Venue, as Section 12.3 describes, carries the Commission stated in Section 9.6 of the Terms. It does not apply to your Entered Work, which Section 12.2 governs. Whether the Order falls within that period, and whether your entry is then approved and not withdrawn or disqualified, is decided at the time the Order is placed, by the Platform's records; an Order placed before a withdrawal or disqualification keeps the 2027 Entrant Rate.

13. Your rights in your work, and our license

13.1 You keep copyright. You keep all copyright and other rights in your entry. Entering does not transfer any of them to Brush & Tell or to anyone else, and a later sale of the physical work transfers the object, not the copyright.

13.2 Our license. By entering you grant Brush & Tell a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to reproduce, display and distribute images of your entry, your name, your school and your entry statement on the Platform and in Brush & Tell's promotion of the Competition and of the Platform, in any medium, during the Competition and for 36 months after the announcement, and afterward in archival and historical references to the Competition. Brush & Tell will credit you as the artist wherever it reasonably can and will not alter your work other than by cropping, resizing and color-balancing for display. This license is in addition to the license in Section 12 of the Terms, except that Brush & Tell's promotional use of images of your Entered Work is governed by the 36-month term in this Section and your right in Section 13.3, notwithstanding Section 12 of the Terms. In these Rules, "archival and historical references to the Competition" means records of the Competition as a past event, such as a page or post that reports its results, a press or media archive, or Brush & Tell's account of its own history; it does not include new promotion or advertising.

13.3 Removal. After the Competition you may ask us to stop using images of your entry in new promotion by writing to info@brushandtell.com, and we will do so within 10 business days, except for material already printed or published and for the archival uses in Section 13.2.

14. Privacy

We use the information you give us to run the Competition and the Platform as described in the Brush & Tell Privacy Policy at brushandtell.com/legal/privacy. Your school email address is used to verify your eligibility; it is not published, not disclosed to your school or to any other Entrant, and not used for marketing unless you separately subscribe it to our email list. Individual votes are not published, and Brush & Tell never publishes who voted for whom; it may publish the number of entries from each school. School email addresses and vote records are deleted or de-identified 90 days after the winner is announced, unless a dispute or an investigation under these Rules is then pending.

15. Release, technical problems and changes

15.1 Release. By entering, you release Brush & Tell, LLC and its members, managers, employees, contractors and agents from any claim arising out of your participation in the Competition, the use of your entry and name under Sections 9.6 and 13.2, or the receipt or use of the prize, to the extent the law allows.

15.2 Technical problems. Brush & Tell is not responsible for entries, votes or bids that are late, lost, incomplete, misdirected or unrecorded because of a technical failure, network problem or human error outside its control. If the Platform's records and an Entrant's records disagree, the Platform's records govern.

15.3 Cancellation and changes. If the Competition cannot run as planned because of fraud, technical failure, a court or government order, or any other cause beyond Brush & Tell's reasonable control that corrupts or affects the administration, security, fairness or proper conduct of the Competition, Brush & Tell may suspend, modify or cancel the Competition by notice at brushandtell.com/contest, and, if it cancels after entries have been approved, will award the prize on the basis of the valid votes received before the cancellation or, if voting has not begun, by an Entrants' vote held as soon as practicable. Brush & Tell will not change these Rules in a way that reduces the prize or narrows eligibility after entries open. After entries open, Brush & Tell will change these Rules only to address fraud, a technical failure or a legal requirement, or in a way that does not disadvantage Entrants, and will post each change with its date at brushandtell.com/contest/rules.

15.4 Limit. To the extent the law allows, Brush & Tell's total liability to any Entrant in connection with the Competition is limited to the amount of the prize.

16. Disputes and governing law

These Rules and the Competition are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Section 20 of the Terms (informal resolution first, the state or federal courts sitting in Denver, Colorado, and small claims where a claim qualifies) applies to any dispute about the Competition. Brush & Tell's decisions on the interpretation and application of these Rules are final, subject to applicable law and to Section 11.

17. General

17.1 These Rules govern. If anything on brushandtell.com, a flyer, a social post, an email or any other material describes the Competition differently from these Rules, these Rules govern.

17.2 Winner list. The winner's name and school, and the top five, are published at brushandtell.com after the announcement. A copy of the winner list is available for 90 days after the announcement by writing to info@brushandtell.com.

17.3 Severability. If any provision of these Rules is held unenforceable, the rest stands.

17.4 Copy of the Rules. These Rules are published at brushandtell.com/contest/rules and are available on request from info@brushandtell.com.

17.5 Questions. info@brushandtell.com.

Changes to these Rules

November 1st, 2026. Sections 3.4, 5.1 and 5.3 changed so that you can enter without a separate artist application. If you have no artist profile, you give an artist name with your entry, and Brush & Tell approves your artist profile when you submit it. Entries are still reviewed under Section 5.3. The change removes a step and does not disadvantage any Entrant, so it is made under Section 15.3.