Banner image: 4'33" Research Competition finalists for the 2023 Spotlight on the Arts, Vale Prosper, Isabella Tallman-Jones, Adah Bennion, and Keren Sahar.

An homage to John Cage's landmark composition of the same name, the 4 Minutes, 33 Seconds Contest highlights University of Georgia student research in the arts. The event offers an opportunity for students to win prizes and to share their creative inquiry with peers, faculty, administrators and alumni throughout the university community. The competition is open to any graduate student or undergraduate student working on an advanced project, who is conducting research related to the literary, visual, or performing arts or artists.

Live presentations will be held on Thursday, Nov. 21, from 4-6 p.m. at the Athenaeum (387 W. Broad Street) where 10 finalists will present their research in talks exactly four minutes and thirty-three seconds in length. Awards include $433 for the grand prize winner and $150 for three runners-up.

The 4 Minutes, 33 Seconds Contest is part of UGA's annual Spotlight on the Arts festival.

For any questionns about the contest, please email Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor at cahnmann@uga.edu. 

Anyone in attendance at the live presentations on November 21 will be eligible to receive one of the NEA Big Read feature books as part of a grant by the Athens-Clarke County Library. The feature books are "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi or "The Creative Ethnographer's Notebook" by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor and Kristina Jacobsen.

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.