Refer an Artist - Emerging Artist Scout Program

Before You Start

$5,000

Successful Artist Referral Fee · one-time

A Scout introduces the Foundation to an emerging artist they believe should know about the D&M Emerging Artist Awards.

There is nothing to register for first, submitting this form registers you as a Scout at the same time.

You do not need to contact the artist or persuade them to apply. If you have permission to share their email address, the Foundation will reach out directly. If you do not, a link to their public work is enough.

The decision to apply always belongs to the artist.

We Will Need The Following Information

Your email address. This becomes your Scout registration and the way your referrals are credited. If you have referred an artist before, please use the same email address.
The artist’s details. Their name and a link to their public work such as a website, portfolio, reel, social profile or company page. An email address for the artist is optional and should only be provided if they have agreed you may share it.
Why you think they should know about this opportunity. A short note about their work, creative voice or potential. You do not need to write a formal nomination, we simply want to understand why you believe they are an artist we should discover.

Please note, the Scout Program page explains eligibility, the referral process and the Successful Artist Referral Fee.

Before You Submit

This form is designed to be completed in one sitting and is not saved as a draft in your browser, as it may contain another person’s contact information.

There is no cost to refer an artist, and there is no cost for artists to apply.

Media Consent

By joining the Scout Program, you confirm that, if the artist you refer is selected, you are willing to participate in photography, filming, interviews and other promotional content if requested.

Participation may include content captured throughout the artist’s journey, during the selection process and at the event. While we cannot guarantee that every Scout will be featured, you agree to make yourself reasonably available should we wish to include you in our media and PR activities.

The Foundation never asks applicants or Scouts for payment. Tax, bank or payment details are only collected if a referral fee becomes payable.

1YouThis registers you

The address you give here is your Scout identity. A referral, and any fee that follows from it, is credited to that address and nothing else, so please use one you check and expect to keep. If you have registered already, enter the same address and this referral joins the record you have.

Your email address

Please enter a valid email address.

Type your email address again

The two addresses do not match yet.

Your first name

Please enter your first name.

Your last name

Please enter your last name.

Your phone number (optional)

2The artistOne per referral

Only what we need to read the referral properly, and, if they have agreed to it, a way to write to them. We do not want their home address, their age, or anything you would not say to them directly.

Their first name

Please enter their first name.

Their last name

Please enter their last name.

What they work in

Please choose the closest description.

A link to their public work

A reel, a profile, a company page, anything already public. This is how we identify the artist and read the referral, and it is the channel we prefer, because it needs nothing private about them. Please do not upload or forward footage of theirs on their behalf; if they apply, they choose what to show us.

Please add a complete web address, starting with http:// or https://.

Their email address

We use this to tell the artist they have been referred. It is a single email, sent once, with nothing further unless they choose to apply. Nothing goes out until you have clicked the confirmation link in your own inbox, so there is a window in which writing to us can still stop it; once it has been sent it cannot be undone by us alone. Check the address carefully, a mistyped one sends a stranger an email about an award they were never referred for.

Please enter a complete email address for the artist.

Type their email address again

Typed rather than pasted, so a slip in the first field shows up here.

The two addresses do not match yet.

Why this artist

0 / 700

Written for us, not for them, the artist does not see this. Eighty characters is enough; a paragraph is plenty. Selection is blind to referral status and Scout identity, so this note credits the referral to you but is not read as part of their application.

Please write at least a sentence, eighty characters or so.

Your relationship to them

0 / 500

Any family, employment, teaching, mentoring, management or representation tie between you and this artist. If there is none, write none, the box still has to be answered. Disclosure is not a disqualification; the Foundation reads it before accepting the referral, and a fee, if one ever becomes payable, is reviewed against what was disclosed here.

Please answer this, write none if there is no relationship.

3What we sendOne email, once

If you have given us the artist’s email address, with their permission, the Foundation writes to them once: introducing the program, naming you as the person who referred them, and telling them that a referral fee may become payable to you if they are selected. That is the only email. Their address is not added to any marketing list, and nothing further is sent unless the artist chooses to apply, though the Foundation may follow up with a call to encourage them to apply. The email carries a one-click link for the artist to have their details deleted, and it is sent as soon as you submit the referral — the artist does not wait on you. Confirming your own email address is what registers you as a Scout and makes you eligible for the referral fee. If you have not given an email address, nothing is sent, the referral is kept on record and the public link you gave is how the Foundation finds their work.

4ConfirmSix confirmations, then the terms

You are giving us someone else's contact details, so these are not boilerplate. Please read them.

I know this artist or have seen their work, the link above is to that artist, and I have good reason to think they would want to hear about this. I understand that if I have given an email address above, the Foundation will write to it once, straight away, naming me as the person who referred them, and that they can ask to be removed in one click, and that if I have not, no email is sent from this referral. I am 18 or older, referring in my own name, and this is not myself, a member of my household, or anyone whose application I stand to gain from beyond the Scout referral fee. I am not inside the process, not a director, officer or employee of the Foundation, not a member of its Advisory & Selection Committee or an advisor with influence over selection, not a contractor whose work includes finding or recruiting applicants, and not an immediate family or household member of anyone who is. I am a U.S. person for tax purposes, a US citizen, a US permanent resident, or otherwise treated as a US person by the IRS. This is a yes-or-no confirmation only: no tax identification number, form or document is collected here, and none is collected unless a referral fee actually becomes payable. I understand selection is blind to referral status and Scout identity, that referring this artist gives them no advantage and no disadvantage, and that I cannot advocate for them inside the process.

Please read and confirm all six to send this referral.

I have read the Terms & Conditions, including the Scout Program terms in Part B, and the Privacy Policy, and I agree to them. I agree the Foundation may store this referral for the purpose of the open call.

You cannot send a referral without agreeing to the Terms & Conditions. Please read them and tick the box.

An eligible Scout whose qualifying referral results in the artist being named one of the five Selected Artists may receive a one-time $5,000 Successful Artist Referral Fee. Eligibility, disclosure and tax requirements apply, and are set out in the Scout Program terms. Nothing is collected here for that purpose; if a fee becomes payable, we will write to you separately.

If the artist has already been referred, or has already applied, we will not write to them twice. You will be told, and the earlier referral stands.

Not quite ready to send

The artist must apply by August 12, 2026

The Foundation never asks applicants for payment.

Referral received

Thank you, one click and the introduction is made

Your referral of the artist is recorded, and a confirmation link is on its way to your inbox. Clicking it registers you as a Scout, and that is what credits this referral, and every later one from the same address, to you. If you have confirmed this address before, you are already registered and nothing further is asked of you.

The artist is written to when you click that link, and not before. The email goes out straight away once you do, naming you, sent once, with nothing further unless the artist chooses to apply. It waits on that click so that nobody can put a stranger's address into this form and have mail sent out under someone else's name. We will confirm to you that it has gone.

Your referral has been received — whether they apply is entirely their decision, and we will not chase them. If they apply and are named one of the five Selected Artists on August 28, 2026, the Foundation will contact you about the $5,000 Successful Artist Referral Fee. Applications close August 12, 2026. If you have any questions, please reach out to [email protected].

Selection is blind to referral status and Scout identity. Nobody reading their application will know a Scout put them forward.

Refer someone else