A couple weeks ago I announced my entry into the Baker Artist Awards. Since then I have been mystified and impressed by the nomination and voting process. More than any other juried competition I've seen, the Baker Awards are public, interactive, and multi-faceted.

For starters, most competitions are very anonymous: you send in your work, hoping it fits with what the jurors are looking for, and find out later what other pieces entered the fray with you. The Bakers are very public from beginning to end. At any given time, I can go online and interact with the competition.

In fact, this sort of interaction feeds the process. Sure, the big prize comes from the jury, but the pool of images they consider comes from the top vote-getters. The Baltimore's Choice Award is chosen entirely by voters. As stated on the Baker site, "the process is designed to open the nominations to the broadest possible community participation using the Web."

Interestingly, the site does not reveal how many votes you have gotten. It also doesn't give any hints on the “hidden goals” set by the foundation: benchmark achievements such as viewing ten nominations or promoting your own nomination that give you more voting power on the site.

Overall, I hope this model serves as an inspiration to other art competitions nationwide. Our generation is all about accessibility via the Internet, and it's encouraging to see this sensibility making its way into the competitive art world. Curated exhibitions within the site will add another layer of fun as local cultural figures choose their favorite art works from the nomination pool.

Whether or not they give me any money, recognition, or added traffic to my site, the Baker Awards are fun. How many competitions have I entered where I could say that?