About The Awards

The Tourettes Action Creativity Awards #TACA is an online event which celebrates the creativity of young people (under 18) and adults (18+) in the UK living with Tourette Syndrome (TS).

The awards gives people with TS a chance to showcase their artistic talents. We’re inviting artists, animators, stand-up comedians, musicians, short filmmakers, composers, dancers, poets and more to produce an original piece of work, providing an opportunity to feature in the #TACA winners online Gallery.

Every entry will receive a certificate, with entries featuring in the online Winners Gallery also being awarded a £25 Amazon voucher.

An illustration of a young person playing a drum kit.

There’s a panel of mentors, fresh from the creative industries, waiting to see what exciting things you’re going to put together, and they will be selecting the pieces that will be exhibited online. You’ll be part of a unique event to celebrate and showcase the thousands of talented and creative young people from across the UK, living with TS.  

MEET THE MENTORS
A photo of Suzanne Dobson
About Suzanne

The Tourettes Action Creativity Awards #TACA was launched in June 2022 in memory of Suzanne Dobson. Suzanne was the charity’s chief executive for more than ten years before she sadly passed away in 2021. She had a passionate belief in young people with TS and in their ability to overcome any setbacks their TS might present and fully express their creativity. 

Tourettes Action Logo

Tourettes Action has worked in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since 1981 and is the leading support, services and research charity for people with Tourette Syndrome (TS) and their families. The charity wants people with TS to receive the practical support and social acceptance they need to help them live their lives to the full. TS is an inherited, neurological condition, the key features of which are tics, involuntary and uncontrollable sounds and movements.

TS is a complex condition and a large number of people with the condition will also experience co-occurring features and conditions. It is estimated that TS affects one school child in every hundred and more than 300,000 children and adults in the UK live with the condition.

The charity’s main activities include:

  • Providing help and support by phone, email, and online chat 
  • Providing or facilitating a range of support activities including online and in-person groups, befriending, making small grant awards and organising workshops and activities including residential ‘Ticfest’ events to bring people with TS together to build confidence, resilience, and community 
  • Providing educational support to schools, teachers, and parents 
  • Running webinars, meetings, and conferences on topics of interest to people with TS and their families 
  • Producing written and other published materials online to improve the knowledge and understanding of TS. Tourettes Action is the ‘go to’ organisation in the UK for authoritative information on TS 
  • Advocating for those living with TS to the statutory authorities e.g. schools and the health service, together with advocacy using the press and via traditional and social media to improve the lives of those with TS 
  • Encouraging and assisting research into all aspects of TS and disseminating the results as widely as possible. Managing and monitoring research projects into the treatment and cure of TS fully or partly funded by the charity’s grants

FAQs

WHAT ARE THE #TACA?
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 our online winners Gallery.
WHO IS IT OPEN TO?
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 (12 and under)
2. Teenagers (13 - 17)
3. Adults (18+)
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO TAKE PART?
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.
WHAT DO THE MENTORS DO?
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 exhibition 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.
WHAT REWARDS CAN I RECEIVE?
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.
WHEN ARE THE KEY DATES?
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
31st October - Winners Gallery opens online
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