Each year, New Times honors the gems of our artistic community with the Big Brain Awards, giving cash prizes to emerging creatives.

For the first time, this year we’ve created a category for Music – designed to recognize creative types devoted to making Phoenix sound better.

From March 4 to March 16, we accepted online nominations for Valley residents who deserve to win $500 in one of the following categories: music, visual art, performing art, design and culinary art.

Finalists can be found on Jackalope Ranch and will be profiled in the paper. Winners will be announced Saturday, May 9 at New Times’ Artopia — an evening of food, drinks, art, and music.