The D&M Emerging Artist Awards

Terms & Conditions

The rules of the open call and the Scout Program, written to be read rather than skipped

July 29, 2026

In short

What you're agreeing to

What you are agreeing to

Apply honestly, submit work you have the right to share, and provide accurate information throughout the application process.

Your work remains yours. The Foundation will only use your application materials to review your submission and administer the D&M Emerging Artist Awards, unless we ask your permission to use them for any other purpose.

Applying is free. Selection is made through a competitive review process by the Foundation and its appointed reviewers. Submitting an application does not guarantee selection, funding or participation in the program.

The sections below form the legal Terms & Conditions governing the D&M Emerging Artist Awards. Where this summary and the sections below differ, the sections below govern.

1 · Who these terms apply to

You, and the Foundation

These Terms & Conditions govern your use of this website and your participation in the D&M Emerging Artist Awards and Emerging Artist Scout Program.

Throughout these terms:

The Foundation
The Daniel and Marcella Nutkis Charitable Foundation, organizer of the D&M Emerging Artist Awards.
The program team
The people responsible for administering the Awards and operating this website on the Foundation's behalf.
You
Anyone using this website, submitting an application, registering as a Scout or making a referral.

By using this website or submitting an application or referral, you agree to these Terms & Conditions. If you do not agree, please do not submit an application or referral.

These Terms should be read alongside our Privacy Policy and, where applicable, the Scout Program terms in Part B.

Part A

The D&M Emerging Artist Awards

Sections 2 to 10 govern applying to the open call.

2 · The Program

What is on offer, and what it is not

The D&M Emerging Artist Awards is a national artist development program for emerging artists working in choreography and movement, based in the United States.

For the 2026 program, five Selected Artists will take part in a professional development program culminating in the presentation of original work within Through the Looking Glass, an immersive live production at the Fashion Industry Gallery in Dallas, Texas, on 31 October 2026.

All five Selected Artists receive
A paid participation stipend; travel and accommodation; mentorship and creative development; professional production experience; and media visibility, event credit and portfolio documentation.
Three Award Recipients receive
Unrestricted artist-development grants of $30,000 (Grand Artist Development Award), $15,000 (Artist Development Award) and $10,000 (Emerging Vision Award).

Artist Development Grants are intended to support recipients' continued creative development. Awards remain subject to final Foundation approval.

3 · Program Timeline

The dates the Foundation currently anticipates

29 July 2026
Applications open.
12 August 2026
Applications close.
19 August 2026
Shortlisted artists announced and Creative Brief issued.
24 August 2026
Creative Submissions deadline.
28 August 2026
Five Selected Artists announced.
September to October 2026
Creative development, mentorship and production preparation.
25 October 2026
Selected Artists travel to Dallas.
26 to 30 October 2026
Rehearsals and production week.
31 October 2026
Through the Looking Glass · live event and D&M Emerging Artist Awards.
1 November 2026
Travel home.

The shortlist announced on 19 August is up to 30 artists. The Creative Submission due on 24 August is an original choreography developed by a shortlisted artist in response to the Creative Brief.

Dates may be updated where necessary. If any material changes affect applicants, the Foundation will publish the revised information on this website and notify applicants where appropriate.

Important

Submitting an application does not create a contractual right to participate in the program or receive funding.

The Foundation reserves the right to amend program dates, review processes or event arrangements where reasonably necessary, including postponing or canceling the program should circumstances require.

Grant amounts for artists already named as Award Recipients are not reduced by a later change.

4 · Who Can Apply

Who may apply

To apply for the 2026 D&M Emerging Artist Awards, you must:

Emerging artist status is based on your stage of career, creative potential and access to meaningful professional opportunities, not your age, formal education or years of practice. The Foundation considers each application individually and reserves the right to request reasonable evidence of eligibility at any stage of the program.

Foundation employees, members of the Advisory & Selection Committee, staff of the program team, people working on the event's production, and anyone directly involved in administering or judging the Awards are not eligible to apply.

5 · Applying

What you confirm when you submit

By submitting an application, you confirm that:

One application per artist. Please submit one application only. If multiple applications are received, the Foundation may consider only the most recent submission. You may withdraw your application at any time by contacting [email protected].

If a confirmation is not true. Providing false or misleading information, misrepresenting your eligibility, or submitting work without the necessary rights or permissions may result in disqualification at any stage of the program, including the withdrawal of selection, awards or grants where appropriate, and including recovery of a grant already paid where the misrepresentation was material.

Saving an application draft in your browser does not constitute a submission. Your application is only received by the Foundation once you complete the submission process.

6 · Your work

You keep it. We are borrowing it to read it

Nothing you submit becomes the Foundation's property. You keep every right you had in your work sample, your portfolio materials and your writing before you sent them.

What you grant us
A limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to store your submission, to make the technical copies needed to host and play it, and to show it to the people named in the Privacy Policy for the purpose of reviewing your application. It is granted for that purpose, it lasts as long as we hold the application, and it ends when the application is deleted.
What we will not do with it
Your work sample is not published, licensed, or shared outside the review process without asking you first. Not in marketing, not on social media, not in a press release, not in a showreel. If the Foundation ever wants to use it for something, it will ask, and you may say no without that affecting your application.
Confidentiality
Applications are treated as confidential. Committee members review them to assess them and are bound to keep them confidential.
Being named
If you are shortlisted, selected or named an Award Recipient, the Foundation will announce that publicly: your name, your discipline and where you are based. That is inherent in a public open call. Anything beyond it, including your image, your work and your words, is agreed with you separately.
Work made in the program
Work created by a Selected Artist for the 31 October event, and how it may be recorded, credited and shown, is governed by the agreement the Foundation enters into with each Selected Artist. This page does not set those terms and does not take any rights in that work.
Ideas that resemble yours
The Foundation reviews many applications and runs a program of its own. Nothing here transfers your ideas to us, and nothing here stops the Foundation developing work that may resemble something it has seen, provided it does not use your submission to do so.

7 · Selection Process

How applications are assessed

Applications are reviewed through a multi-stage selection process designed to identify artists with exceptional creative potential, originality and choreographic voice.

The 2026 selection process is expected to include:

Applications are assessed on artistic merit, creative vision, originality, potential for development and alignment with the aims of the program.

In the first round, your name is not shown to reviewers alongside your work sample. Your date of birth and your answer to how you heard about the open call are not shown to reviewers at any stage, and neither forms part of the assessment.

Where an artist has been referred through the Emerging Artist Scout Program, referral status and Scout identity are not shared with reviewers and play no part in the assessment process.

The Foundation's decisions regarding shortlisting, selection and awards are final. Due to the anticipated volume of applications, we are unable to provide individual feedback.

The Foundation reserves the right not to make one or more awards if, in its judgment, no application meets the required standard.

8 · What We Look For

Applications are considered as a whole

There is no points system and no single route to selection, but the Advisory & Selection Committee will generally be looking for:

Every application is read in context. Professional credits and experience matter, but they are considered alongside the work itself, the artist's stage of development and the potential they demonstrate.

9 · Advisory & Selection Committee

Who reads the applications

Applications are reviewed by the Foundation and an Advisory & Selection Committee drawn from choreography, performance, movement direction, immersive experience, live production and artist development.

Committee members are appointed by the Foundation and are bound to keep applications confidential. They are not told whether an applicant was referred, or by whom.

Committee members: to be announced

10 · Awards & Payments

Artist Development Grants and program support

All five Selected Artists receive the full Emerging Artist program, including mentorship, creative development, production support, professional documentation, travel, accommodation and a paid participation stipend.

Following the live performance, three artists will also receive unrestricted Artist Development Grants, as set out in The Program above.

The grants are unrestricted
An Artist Development Grant is intended to support the recipient's continued creative growth and may be used at the artist's discretion.
Paid on agreement
Payments are made following completion of the Foundation's required agreements and any documentation required by applicable US law, which for a US recipient normally means a completed W-9 and payment details. None of that is collected at application or at referral.
Tax is yours
Recipients are responsible for their own tax affairs. The Foundation will report payments as required and may be obliged to withhold. The Foundation does not provide tax advice.
Not transferable
An award is made to the individual artist named. It cannot be assigned, sold or transferred, and it cannot be substituted for cash beyond what it already is.
Travel and accommodation
Arranged and funded separately by the Foundation in accordance with the program, in addition to the stipend.

Part B

The Emerging Artist Scout Program

Sections 11 to 16 govern referrals. They are the full terms of the Scout Program. The Scout Program page is a summary of them, written to be read first; where the two differ, this Part governs.

11 · The Scout Program

What a Scout is, and what a referral is

The Emerging Artist Scout Program lets people who know the field introduce the Foundation to artists an open call would not otherwise reach. Registering as a Scout and making a first referral happen at the same moment: the referral form registers the email address as it sends.

Who may register
Individuals aged 18 or older, registering in their own name and in an individual capacity. An organization may submit referrals unpaid, or be engaged separately under a written institutional scouting or outreach agreement, but is not eligible for the $5,000 Successful Artist Referral Fee.
Your email address is your identity
There is no code to remember. The address a referral is sent from is what the referral is credited to. A registration stays inactive until the confirmation link sent to that address is clicked, and a fee is only ever payable to a confirmed address. Where an email address was given for the artist, that email is sent when the referral is submitted, so that the artist is not left waiting on the Scout; confirming the Scout’s own address is what registers the Scout and is a condition of any fee. Where the address already belongs to a confirmed Scout, a further referral joins that record rather than creating a second one.
What a referral is
An introduction. You give the Foundation an artist's name, a link to their public work, an email address for them, and a short note on why they fit. The Foundation writes to the artist once, naming you.
What a referral is not
A referral is not an application, a nomination or an endorsement. It does not mean the Foundation has evaluated the artist, and it gives the artist no preference in selection. Every applicant must satisfy the same eligibility requirements and is evaluated under the same published criteria.
Costs nothing, either way
There is no fee to register as a Scout and no fee to refer. The Foundation never asks applicants or Scouts for payment. See section 17.

12 · Making a referral

What a referral has to contain, and what makes it qualify

The artist's details
Every referral needs a link to the artist's public work and an email address for them. It must be one you hold for them and believe to be current, given in the reasonable belief that they would want to hear about the opportunity.
What the artist is told
Every referral email tells the artist who referred them, that the Foundation was given their address by that person, that a $5,000 referral fee may become payable to that Scout if the artist is named a Selected Artist, and how to have their details deleted in one click.
What makes a referral qualifying
Eight things, together. It is made through the referral form in your own name, from an email address you go on to confirm, so that you are registered or accepted as a Scout before, or at the moment, you submit it. It reaches the Foundation before the artist applies, and before the Foundation has already approached that artist about the open call. The artist is not already the subject of an earlier Controlling Referral. The details are accurate and include at least one link to a portfolio, website or public work. You give a short, good-faith explanation of why the artist fits. The artist confirms that the introduction is legitimate and that the Foundation may identify you by name. You have complied with the conflict, privacy, conduct and anti-abuse requirements in these terms. And the Foundation accepts and records the referral.
What does not qualify
Self-referrals, referrals of a member of your own household, and referrals carrying an undisclosed conflict. Referring an artist who has already applied, or whom the Foundation had already approached about the open call, does not qualify. Nor does a referral made by anyone excluded under section 14.
How many you may make
One artist per referral. For the 2026 open call the limit is five referrals per Scout, unless the Foundation approves an exception in writing. The program rewards judgment, not volume.
What you may not say
After the Foundation has written to an artist you referred, you may follow up to encourage them to look at the opportunity. You may not represent that the artist has been nominated, approved, determined eligible, shortlisted, selected, or given any advantage. None of those things is true of a referral, and saying so misleads the artist about a process they have not yet entered.

13 · Blind selection and referral records

Nobody reading an application knows a referral exists

Applications are reviewed without reference to referral status or Scout identity. A Scout cannot advance, endorse or advocate for a referred artist inside the process, and no part of the review is told that a referral exists.

Referral records are kept separate from the application files the Advisory & Selection Committee reads. Nobody evaluating an application is shown that a referral exists or who made it.

Without the artist's permission, the Foundation will not tell a Scout whether the artist applied, what their application said, how it was assessed, or whether they are still under consideration. The Foundation will confirm only that the outreach took place. The same rule protects a Scout's own referral from being discussed with anyone else.

14 · Disclosure and exclusions

Who cannot be a Scout, and what has to be declared

People inside the process cannot be Scouts: Foundation directors, officers and employees; Advisory & Selection Committee members; advisors with influence over selection; and contractors whose work includes recruiting applicants. The referral form asks you to confirm you are none of these.

Your relationship with the artist is a different question. Any family, household, employment, educational, teaching, mentoring, management, representation, financial, contractual or business tie to the artist must be disclosed on the referral, which asks for it in writing every time.

Teachers, professors, mentors and former collaborators are not automatically excluded. The Foundation reads the disclosure before accepting the referral, and reviews it again against anything disclosed if a fee ever becomes payable. Disclosure does not disqualify you; failing to disclose does, and it disqualifies the referral.

Registering as a Scout also asks you to confirm that you are a US person for tax purposes. It is a yes-or-no confirmation and nothing more: no tax identification number, tax form or bank detail is collected at referral, and none is collected unless a fee actually becomes payable to you.

15 · The Successful Artist Referral Fee

One payment, one outcome, no retainer

A $5,000 Successful Artist Referral Fee may become payable to an eligible Scout whose qualifying referral results in that artist being named one of the five Selected Artists. One payment per Selected Artist: not a retainer, not a commission on the artist's grant, and not a payment per referral made. The artist's award is unaffected, and nothing is deducted from what the artist receives.

When it is payable
Where an eligible Scout's qualifying referral results in that artist being named one of the five Selected Artists, and every condition in these terms has been met. The artist must have applied through the open call and been selected on the merits of their application, and must have accepted the place and entered the program under the Foundation's participation agreement. Only the five artists named as Selected Artists qualify for this purpose, and being shortlisted, interviewed or otherwise under consideration is not the same as being named.
When no fee is payable
Where the referral did not qualify; where the Scout's own email address was never confirmed; where a conflict was not disclosed; where the artist was already the subject of an earlier Controlling Referral, or had already applied; or where the artist is not named a Selected Artist. There is no fee where an artist is shortlisted or interviewed but not named. Nor is a fee payable where a named artist declines the place, withdraws, does not enter the participation agreement, or is found not to have met the eligibility requirements.
If two Scouts refer the same artist
Only one referral is recognized, the Controlling Referral, and only the Scout behind it can qualify for a fee. A timestamp alone does not decide it. The Foundation determines the Controlling Referral in good faith, taking the referrals as a whole; an earlier submission that was incomplete, or that did not meaningfully introduce the artist, does not take precedence simply for having arrived first. The Foundation's determination is final. The fee is not split, unless two Scouts made a joint referral the Foundation accepted in writing before the artist applied.
How it is paid
After the Scout has entered into the Foundation's agreement for it and provided the documentation US law requires, which for a US recipient normally means a completed W-9 and payment details. None of that is collected at registration or at referral. It is collected once a fee is confirmed, and the Foundation writes to the Scout separately to make the arrangements.
Tax
A referral fee is income to the person who receives it. The Foundation will report the payment as required and may be obliged to withhold. You are responsible for your own tax position, and the Foundation does not give tax advice.
Not transferable
A fee is payable to the individual Scout who made the Controlling Referral. It cannot be assigned, sold or transferred.

16 · Your registration

What is held, and how to leave

What your registration is for
To confirm your email address, to credit referrals to you, to contact you if a fee becomes payable, and to understand where the open call is reaching. It is not sold, not shared with the artists you refer beyond your name, and not used for marketing. See the Privacy Policy.
Leaving the program
Write to [email protected] and the Foundation will close your registration and delete your details, subject to any record it is required to keep about a fee already paid. Referrals already made are not withdrawn by leaving.
Ending or changing the program
The Foundation may amend or close the Scout Program, and may decline or withdraw a referral or a fee where these terms have not been met. Where a change affects a referral already made, the terms in force when it was made apply.

Part C

Applying to both

Sections 17 to 19 apply to applicants and Scouts alike.

17 · Fees

Nothing here costs you anything, at any stage

There is no fee to apply for the Emerging Artist Awards, to register as an Emerging Artist Scout, to refer an artist, or to receive an award, a grant or a referral fee.

The Foundation will never ask applicants or Scouts for payment at any stage of the program. If anyone requests payment, asks for your bank details to “release” an award, or claims they can improve your chances of selection in exchange for money, they are not acting on behalf of the Foundation. Please report it immediately to [email protected].

Financial and tax information is only ever requested after a grant, stipend or referral fee has been confirmed as payable to you, and it is requested in order to pay you.

18 · Liability, and where disputes go

The part that has to be said carefully

Submitting an application or a referral does not create a contractual right to participate in the program, to be shortlisted or selected, or to receive any payment. The Foundation may decline to make any or all of the awards in a given year.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PROVIDED BY LAW, NEITHER THE FOUNDATION NOR ITS AFFILIATES, LICENSORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, TRUSTEES, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, CONTRACTORS, PROGRAM TEAM OR ADVISORY & SELECTION COMMITTEE MEMBERS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE OPEN CALL, THE SCOUT PROGRAM, THE SELECTION PROCESS, THE EVENT, OR THESE TERMS & CONDITIONS, WHETHER CAUSED BY TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), BREACH OF CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE, AND EVEN IF FORESEEABLE.

Nothing above affects any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, and nothing above applies to a stipend, grant or referral fee the Foundation has confirmed as payable to you. That is governed by section 10, section 15 and the agreement made for it.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Foundation and the people and entities listed above from any claim, liability, damage, loss, cost or expense, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of anything you submitted, and in particular any claim that a submission infringes or misappropriates the rights of a third party.

Governing law
These Terms & Conditions, and any dispute arising out of or relating to them, the open call or the Scout Program, are governed by the internal laws of the State of Texas, without giving effect to any choice or conflict of law rule.
Where a dispute goes
Exclusively to the federal courts of the United States or the courts of the State of Texas, in each case located in Collin County, Texas. Each of us consents to the jurisdiction of those courts and waives any objection to venue in them.
Time limit
Any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms & Conditions, the open call or the Scout Program must be commenced within one (1) year after the cause of action accrues, or it is permanently barred.
If a clause fails
If any provision is held invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it is eliminated or limited to the minimum extent necessary and the rest continues in full force. No failure by the Foundation to assert a right waives it.
Events outside anyone's control
The Foundation is not liable for any failure or delay caused by an event beyond its reasonable control, including an act of God, fire, flood, severe weather, epidemic or pandemic, public health measure, war, civil unrest, terrorism, labor dispute, failure of a utility or supplier, cyberattack, or any act or order of a government or public authority.

Before anyone goes to court, please write to [email protected]. Many disputes can be resolved without recourse to the courts, and the Foundation will always try to do so first.

19 · Changes and contact

If these terms change, the date changes with them

The Foundation may update these Terms & Conditions from time to time. The date at the top of the page is the date of the current version.

The version in effect when an application or a referral was submitted applies to that submission. A later change does not reach back and alter what you agreed to. Where a change materially affects an application or a referral already made, the Foundation will write to you about it.

These Terms & Conditions, together with the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use, are the whole of the agreement between you and the Foundation about the open call and the Scout Program, and they supersede anything said about it beforehand. Where a question concerns use of the website rather than participation, the Terms of Use govern.

Email
[email protected]
By post
The Daniel and Marcella Nutkis Charitable Foundation, 6175 Main St, Ste 420, Frisco, TX 75034
Daniel and Marcella Nutkis Charitable Foundation

The Open Call · The D&M Emerging Artist Awards