Vote for the 2009 New England Art Awards

The 2009 New England Art Awards is a contest to honor the best art made here and exhibits organized here in 2009. And we want you to help us pick the winners.

Everyone is welcome to vote here. Winners will be chosen by (1) local active art journalists and (2) anyone else who wants to vote – and will be announced in terms of these two categories of voters.

Winners will be announced at the 2009 New England Art Awards Ball at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8, 2010, at the Burren, 247 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts. The event is free and open to all. Creative attire is encouraged.

How to vote:
We’ve automated voting this year – and our robots are standing by to receive your picks. You are welcome to vote in as many categories as you like or to leave lots of blanks. Please invite your friends to vote too. Votes must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24, to be counted. The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research will tally the votes. Nominees with the most votes in each category will win.

Voting will only be accepted via the robot voting form. We ask each voter to submit a name and e-mail address to prevent fraud. Cheaters will be banished. If you spot factual errors in the ballot, please send corrections here.

The aim of the awards, which are organized by The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research, is to promote a more exciting local art scene by encouraging and celebrating the work of artists and curators active in New England (except Yalies).

What’s happened so far:
The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research invited everyone to make nominations in late December and more than 80 people made submissions. (Thank you.) We asked readers to volunteer to help us cull the nominations and got four volunteers and then recruited two more folks to pitch in. This team – Scott Davis, a painter based in Waldoboro, Maine; Franklin Einspruch of Artblog.net; Christian Holland of BigRedAndShiny.com; Dennis Kois, director of DeCordova Sculpture Park + Museum; Boston painter Matt Murphy; and Neal Walsh of AS22o (thank you, fellas) – helped us narrow down the nominations to the final voting ballot that we present here.

To those of you who received nominations but did not make the final ballot, please keep at it. We want you to kick ass in 2010 and be on next year’s ballot.