Digital Art and NO Ai Policy

Purpose and scope

Colorado Art Shows welcomes original, artist-created work, including Digital Art. This policy protects the integrity of our jury process, the value of exhibiting artists’ work, and buyers’ confidence in what they purchase.

The policy applies to work submitted, displayed, offered for sale, or sold at Colorado Art Shows events in every medium, including prints and reproductions. Digital Art remains an eligible category. Existing category, originality, reproduction, and display requirements still apply.

Digital tools that are permitted

Artists may use digital tools to create their own work, including digital drawing and painting, illustration, compositing, and artist-built three-dimensional modeling. Non-AI procedural work created through the artist’s own code or rules is not excluded simply because a computer executes it.

Routine technical tools, such as cropping, color and exposure correction, sharpening, masking, and noise reduction, are permitted when they do not generate or replace artistic subject matter or design. A tool’s actual use matters more than its product name or whether the software includes other AI features.

Generative AI that is prohibited

Work containing creative content generated by AI is not eligible. This includes AI-generated images, objects, backgrounds, patterns, compositions, designs, or three-dimensional forms, whether generated from text prompts, other images, or other inputs.

Artists may not use generative fill, expansion, replacement, or similar features to create or substitute artistic content in the work. Selecting prompts, choosing an output, or editing AI-generated material does not establish compliance. There is no permitted percentage of generative AI content.

AI generated source material

An AI-generated image or design may not serve as a template, underdrawing, compositional blueprint, or direct visual reference that is traced, repainted, recreated, or translated into another medium. Making a physical version or substantially reworking the output does not make it eligible.

Accurate applications and jury images

Artists must accurately describe how their work is created and identify relevant digital processes in their application. Work exhibited must be consistent with the work and process presented to the jury. A process change that could affect eligibility must be reviewed by Colorado Art Shows before the affected work is exhibited.

Jury images must accurately represent the actual artwork and booth, as applicable. Basic photographic corrections are permitted if they do not change what is being represented. AI-created or AI-altered images may not be used to fabricate artwork, a booth, or display details that do not exist.

Routine business uses of AI, such as scheduling or proofreading, fall outside this artwork policy. Application answers and artist statements must still be truthful and describe the artist’s actual process.

Questions and process review

Artists who are unsure whether a process is permitted should ask Colorado Art Shows before submitting or exhibiting the work and describe the specific feature and how it is used.

Colorado Art Shows may request a process explanation and reasonable supporting material appropriate to the medium, such as sketches, progress photographs, source images, layered files, or available version history. No single type of documentation is required in every case.

We will explain the concern and give the artist a reasonable opportunity to respond. An automated AI detector’s result, the appearance of the artwork, or an allegation alone is not sufficient to establish a violation. Decisions will consider the available evidence and the artist’s explanation.

Compliance and enforcement

Colorado Art Shows may decline work that does not meet this policy or require that ineligible work be removed from display or sale. Serious or repeated violations, or material misrepresentation of the creative process, may result in removal from an event or ineligibility for future events. The response should reflect the nature and extent of the violation.

This policy does not establish new refund or fee-forfeiture terms. Any such terms must be addressed in the applicable event agreement.