Hutchins Prize, The: Home

The Hutchins Prize

History

The Francis S. Hutchins Humanities Prize Fund was created in 1965 by friends of Yale-in-China and local citizens to honor Fancis S. Hutchin’s 25 years of service to Berea College. At his request, the fund was to be used to promote creative work in the three arts. Students present works of art, literature, or music to the President’s office where a committee judges them for a Hutchins Prize. 

The Francis S. Hutchins Award in the Creative Arts, established by friends and admirers to honor the former president of Berea College Fancis S. Hutchins, will be given annually to a junior or senior student for evidence of growth and accomplishment in the field of the humanities. Evidence of that growth is to be based on creative work in music, literature, or the visual arts or a critical essay in the arts. The Francis S. Hutchins Award in the Creative Arts should not be confused with the Hutchins-Robinson Mountain Scholarship.

The Rules

Eligible contestants: Juniors and Seniors attending Berea College during the Spring semester of 2006 who are seriously interested in the creative arts and who have developed significant original projects, creative or critical. 

The Prize: Three prizes of $500 each – one in Literature, one in Art, one in music. Second place awards $400 each and third place awards $300 each. In case the judges decide that the quality of the creative project is not high enough, a prize may not be awarded at all.

Eligible projects: eligible projects include the following:

A. A creative project in one of the three arts (e.g., a painting, a sculpture, an architectural model, a song, fugue or sonata, a short story, a play, a T.V. documentary, a film, a collection of poems).
B. A critical essay dealing with some aspect of the creative arts
C. Collections of work
 

1. Collections may be submitted as a related group of works, either in form or content (e.g., a series of stories on one theme, a group of photographs on one theme, a group of paintings related in content or intent)
2. Collections will be judged as a whole, not on the merits of the best portion of the collection.

Special Details:

1. The entries are limited to one per person, and may be entered only in one category. Also entries submitted for the Hutchins Award will not be considered if they previously have received an award in a Berea College competition or are currently entered in other prize awarding competitions sponsored by the College.
2. Judges will not consider any entries which are not in presentable form.
3. A tape recording of a musical entry must be submitted in addition to the manuscript.
4. Winning works are to be available for public presentation, display, publication, or performance after the announcement of the award, wherever possible.

The Judges: are appointed annually by the President of the College from each of the three arts. There may also be judges from other areas other than the creative arts and, possibly, judges from off campus.