For the eighth year, VSA arts and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., have partnered to recognize and showcase emerging artists with disabilities, ages 16–25, who are living in the United States. This collaboration supports these artists at a critical time when many are deciding whether to pursue the arts as a career. The award validates, and helps finance, that life-defining choice.

VSA arts sent more than 20,000 calls for entry to high schools and colleges around the country, inviting submissions that illustrate the theme "Accelerate." Participants were asked to consider the source of their artistic motivations and were encouraged to contemplate the relationship between life, art, and disability. Selected from 236 submissions, these 15 recipients were awarded a total of $60,000 generously provided by Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.