SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — What is art? This is a question that has been asked, pondered and relitigated throughout human history. A better question perhaps is, what isn’t art?

While this is likely just as difficult to answer, it is a question voters at Siouxland Libraries’ upcoming Bad Art Contest will be asked to consider.

Artists attempts to depict subjects often miss the mark, whether it’s Mignon’s startling cat in The Overturned Bouquet, or the attempts of various artists to paint horses, cats and fish.

There are also occasions in which something represented as art is intended to be, well, bad. And that is the goal of the 15 participants who will be utilizing a hodgepodge of provided materials at the Oak View Branch of the Siouxland Libraries in Sioux Falls on March 18.

This is the first year for the event, organizer Claire Jeanson, a library associate, told KELOLAND News over the phone Friday.

The event will begin at 10:00 a.m., with participants using materials ranging from canvas and paint to egg cartons and foam blocks to create whatever image, structure, likeness or thing they wish.

The time to complete their artwork will expire at noon, at which point the works will be set out for display, allowing voters 20 minutes to decide which piece is the worst.

Jeanson says the winner of the contest will take home a trophy, with 2nd and 3rd place receiving ribbons.

Asked what she says constitutes ‘bad art,’ Jeanson said she envisions the participants creating works that will make you “question if it’s really art.”