Competition Rules

The Mitchelville Heritage Trail Competition is open to all U.S. citizens. Non-citizens and nationals are welcome to participate as Team Members if the Team Leader is a U.S. citizen. Professionals, students and other categories of creatives are welcome to compete. Design entries may be submitted by individuals, firms or educational institutions. The work submitted must not have been previously published or fabricated. Submissions must be works created by either the individual or the team registered. Competitors, whether individuals or teams, may submit only one design proposal, but are welcome to enter the Competition for either or all four of the Mitchelville Heritage Trail sites. Students are required to have a faculty or school administrator facilitator sign the Registration Form.

All design proposals must be digitally submitted. All entries will be anonymized with an identification number when the Registration Form and Payment are received. All entries will be judged anonymously. Neither the essay, designed artwork or any label can exhibit identifying information on the Competitor(s).

Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park (HMFP), as Sponsor of the Competition, will retain ownership rights to all prize-winning works with rights to fabricate, display, publish and record for archival purposes. The Authors and, or Designers of all submissions will be publicized for those purposes. Competitors are therefore encouraged to make and retain all desired records of the designed artwork. No prize-winning entry may be used for any future design purposes.

No feature from any unsuccessful entry may be incorporated by the Sponsor in any winning works without the written permission of both the (HMFP) Executive Director and the Designer(s) of that specific feature. Should the Sponsor and Designer of the desired feature agree to incorporate it into the final fabricated installation, reasonable compensation will be agreed upon and extended to the original Designer of that feature.


HMFP, as Sponsor, retains all rights to initial announcements of all winning Designs. The Competitors of all winning Artworks will be notified by phone call and email within 24 hours of the final Jury deliberations and decisions.