Running from July to September annually, the #TACA are the Tourettes Action Creativity Awards for young people (under 18) and adults (18+), living in the UK. They have been established by the leading voice and service provider for people living with Tourette Syndrome (TS), Tourettes Action.
The #TACA will remember Suzanne Dobson who was the charity’s CEO for more than ten years before her unexpected passing in 2021. Suzanne’s passionate belief in young people with TS and their ability to overcome any setbacks their TS might present is one of the drivers for this exciting event.
There are two categories to submit an original piece of artwork to, these are:
1. Visual Arts
2. Musical & Performance Arts
After the original submission has been uploaded onto the #TACA website at taca.org.uk, it will then be looked at by mentors, who are creative professionals in the arts to create a range of submissions that will feature in an online Winners Gallery.
The #TACA are open to anyone, living in the UK, with a diagnosis, or expected diagnosis of Tourette Syndrome.
There are three age groups in each of the arts categories:
1. Juniors (6 - 12)
2. Teenagers (13 - 17)
3. Adults (18+)
You will need to decide whether to enter the Visual Arts or Musical & Performance Arts categories. Once you know which one you’d like to enter you can choose the type of piece you would like to create from the list below:
Visual Arts:
Animation
Painting
Drawing
Graphic Design
Photography
Printmaking
Short Film
Musical & Performance Arts:
Instrumental performance
Singing
Stand-up
Composition
Poetry
Monologue
Dance
If you want to you can enter one piece in the Visual Arts and one piece in the Musical & Performance Arts.
When you are ready to submit your original piece of art you can do this on the secure website taca.org.uk. We will not be able to accept any postal submissions. There is no fee payable to enter the awards, it is free to all. All entrants will need to confirm that they have their parent/ guardian’s permission to take part.
All entries must be the exclusive and original work of the entrant, entrants will not be able to use copyrighted materials as part of their submission.
If your entry features people that you know, such as members of your family or friends, you should let them know before you submit your entry that the artwork could end up being seen by the public.
We reserve the right not to include an entry if we believe it is conveying a harmful message.
We reserve the right to exclude any entry if we feel that the #TACA rules haven’t been followed.
We accept no responsibility for entries that are incomplete, illegible, incorrect, corrupted or fail to reach the #TACA by the closing date for any reason. Automatically generated entries or entries via third parties are invalid and shall not be considered.
We cannot accept entries from those that have a member of family working for Tourettes Action or acting as a mentor.
We reserve the right to change or cancel the #TACA without notice under exceptional circumstances.
Mentors will be spread across each category (Visual Arts and Musical & Performance Arts) and will be taking a look at all the entries made to the #TACA. They will select a number of entries that will feature in the online Winners Gallery on the taca.org.uk site and then on the Tourettes Action site.
Our mentors are professionals from the creative industries, and will be volunteering their time, feedback, expertise and passion for the arts to the #TACA. Selecting entries to exhibit won’t be easy, as there are thousands of talented people out there. First of all, our mentors will make sure that each entry has met the guidelines. Mentors will then use a specially developed scoring sheet which will ask them to score different sections out of a total score of ten in each section. These sections are slightly different for each category, and they are listed below:
Visual Arts criteria:
Imagination
Ambition
Artistic quality
Musical & Performance Arts criteria:
Imagination
Performance quality
Artistic quality
Technicality
Emotion
Our mentors will be doing this independently using a secure online portal to view each of the entries in their category. They will not have any information available to them to identify you, as all entries will be anonymised. Once each mentor in each category has seen and scored each entry they will meet to discuss their scores and between them will select the entries to exhibit.
The mentor’s decision to exhibit is final.
Once the entries for the Winners Gallery are confirmed a member of staff from Tourettes Action will contact each artist’s parent / guardian to confirm that they are happy to have the art put on public display online and confirm that the artist does have a TS diagnosis or is in the process of receiving one. Once confirmed the art will be made available on taca.org.uk.
All entries to the #TACA will receive a certificate.
Entries that have been selected for the winners Gallery by our mentors will receive a £25 Amazon voucher.
There is no cash alternative available.
Your personal information:
We will collect this information to communicate with you during and after the awards, allowing us to confirm details relevant to the awards such as your age, and to encourage your participation in the future #TACA events that will take place.
Our mentors will only see your age when they look at your art. We will only publish your first name and age should your entry be exhibited.
Your data will be managed in accordance with the Tourettes Action Privacy Policy.
In agreeing to the #TACA rules, upon submission of your piece, you agree to Tourettes Action using your data in this way.
Your submitted piece of art:
By submitting your piece of art you agree that your art can be viewed by the mentors and associated staff working on the #TACA. If your entry is selected for exhibition you agree that it can be made available for the public to see on the taca.org.uk website and then moved and exhibited on the Tourettes Action website at tourettes-action.org.uk indefinitely. You also agree that the organisers can reproduce and utilise in whole or in part your piece of art on social media, through press releases to raise awareness of the #TACA, Tourette Syndrome, and the Tourettes Action charity.
In 2024, these are the key dates for this year’s TACA:
22nd July - #TACA site goes live
26th July - #TACA open for entries
6th September - #TACA closed to entries
November - Winners Gallery opens online
We want as many people living with TS as possible to take part in the #TACA, and we feel that doing everything online makes it easier to take part. There’s no need to post your piece of visual art, and there’s no need to perform your musical or performance art in a theatre in front of our mentors. We have done what we can to remove the barriers and as many reasons as possible not to take part.
As a responsible charity Tourettes Action would like everyone to enjoy the experience in taking part in the #TACA and to feel safe.
There is a dedicated Safeguarding Policy in place, which is reviewed regularly by the charity. This policy provides detailed guidance on protecting young people, children and vulnerable adults who are using the charity’s services. The #TACA would constitute a charity service. As part of this policy the charity has a named member of staff as the Safeguarding Lead.
Along with this we are running the #TACA entirely online and removing any contact entrants will have with charity staff, #TACA mentors and other entrants.
Each entry is anonymised, with the file name and age of the artist the only information made available to our mentors. For those entries that are exhibited online the artist’s first name and age will only be used on the publicly viewable site.
What you need to do is to contact us through the form on taca.org.uk to let us know, and we will then take the necessary steps to cancel your submission.
