What's the Failure Award? MCA Rewards High School Seniors for Taking Risks

High school seniors who are creative risk-takers: The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver has a scholarship for you.

The museum is currently accepting submissions for its 2024 Failure Award, a $20,000 scholarship with a project-based selection process and an application deadline of March 1. The emphasis for the projects is on finding work that is original, authentic and "genuinely new." Prospective applicants must be Colorado high school seniors graduating this spring and planning to attend an accredited, post-secondary institution or trade school in the fall of 2024; most importantly, they must not fear the "F-word" (failure), but embrace it. The award's description elaborates that it "is given not on the basis of academic merit or athletic prowess, but rather on a student's demonstration of a willingness to take risks."

"The big thing is, how did failure play a role in [your project]?'" says Christina Chambers, the museum's assistant director for programming and education. "What does that look like, and how have you related that now to the work that you're going to continue to do?"

To demonstrate both their creative practice of choice as well as its risks, students must document a project from their high school tenure that they can also bring to the Failure Award Scholarship Presentation on Saturday, April 27, at the Holiday Theater. The MCA doesn't have any limits on the type of projects that will be accepted, and a lengthy list of possible formats displays just how far outside the box it's willing to go. Many traditional modes of creative expression are there, such as photography, painting and performance — but so are the culinary arts, video-game design, robotics and fashion. The museum states: "Some projects may present solutions to problems in the world, however, all projects will be considered, no matter how harebrained, impractical or absurd."

Recent finalists have tended to lean into work that incorporates their day-to-day experiences as high school students. "A lot of their projects are in relation to something in their lives, which is really interesting," says Chambers. One student "had actually been hospitalized for the majority of their senior year. He was really into creating beats and music, and so he created a series of music that was based on sounds he heard while he was in the hospital." Last year's winner, Jessica Leal, incorporated elements of her family's history and cultural practices into a mixed-media work of visual art.
"For us, I think the biggest thing to keep in mind is that risk can take many forms," Chambers explains. "For some of them, the risk was doing a project that was different than what was expected from the assignment, right? So, for example, the winner from the year before I started, [Kaley Corinaldi], wrote a song for a project that didn't call for a song. She felt like that is how she could best express herself."

Chambers recalls another drama student finalist who "talked about how all the theater school auditions asked her to do auditions from plays that were prior to 1950. This was a young Black woman who said, 'There weren't any characters [like me] before 1950. How can you ask me to do that? It feels unfair.' So choosing not to follow those directions in her auditions and then picking plays that felt most relatable to her...those sort of things, I think, are the types of risks that we're looking for."

The scholarship originated eight years ago, with multiple awards being presented at a "Failure Fair," endowed by the local philanthropy organization the Fries Foundation, which at the time was looking to make a contribution toward area students. Since then, it has been focused into a single amount, administered by the Denver Foundation, but the "science fair for creatives" feel of the Failure Fair persists in the culminating presentation event on April 27. From the submission pool, ten to twelve finalists will be selected to attend, and each will have ten minutes to present their project and take questions from a panel of judges drawn from MCA staff, boardmembers, local educators and former winners.

The award is a highlight of the museum's commitment to local young creatives, but it's far from the only one. For teens seeking inspiration, perhaps while putting the finishing touches on their Failure Award submissions, the MCA has one of the best perks around: For them, admission is always free.

The Failure Award Scholarship 2024 has a March 1 deadline for submissions and a mandatory presentation event on April 27 at the Holiday Theater, 2644 West 32nd Avenue. Find more information, including submission guidelines and applications, at mcadenver.org.