As an old dog having seen all these in play, I personally think the most FUN ones are the picture perfect entries. It allows for a range of participation, it's creative and the documentation part can range from easy peezy (got a picture) to doctoral level. Something for everyone! Also it allows for the populace to do a visual rating and have an appreciation for an item that doesn't necessarily require a lot of background since the source piece is easy to identify. You'd get lots of costumes, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

What I also like about this format is that it gives the opportunity for the judges to teach beyond the 'I took a picture and just made what I thought it was' to how to actually research the item from the visual inception point. Frankly, I think that is what most of the newer people do, and because they get skerrit of the "documentation" they never try to go further. That's why I'd make a picture the 'minimum' documentation, and points are added after that just to get folk to play. One thing I've never seen happen was to appoint a group as a resource bank for entrants - especially first timers who want advice on where to look for more info. Perhaps start an e-group for interested parties, or a web-page where you can sign up for a mailing list if you are interested in playing? That way you sneakily start to collect a group of people interested in A&S in your area...

This isn't a championship, is it?