From personal experience as well as speaking with some of our student organizers, the Peace Center has found that art and writing is a therapeutic, meditative, and transformative practice. It allows us to contextualize and process our feelings and thoughts as well as help us translate stress into something concrete, healing, and tangible. What better to practice during a quarantine?
In light of COVID-19, we have made some necessary changes to the format of the Art and Writing Challenge / Activist Grants.
- First, we have added an additional (completely optional) component to the prompt/theme. We would like to give students an opportunity to respond to the impact of COVID-19 on their lives and the world. What lessons are we learning? How do we build strong communities to help us get through these situations in the future?
Our original prompt/theme, “Our Connected Planet”, is still applicable to the contest, the additional prompt is optional. Guidelines for the original theme can be found on our website here:
Our submission deadline for both the Art and Writing Challenge as well as the Youth Activist Grant nominations have been extended to MAY 15TH at Midnight via GOOGLE FORMS: www.tinyurl.com/artandwriting2020
- To submit visual art, take a birds-eye photograph of your piece, ensuring that it is properly lit and in focus.
- All writing submissions should be submitted as a WORD or GOOGLE Document, please no PDFs!
- All activist grant submissions should be made with the available nomination form: https://creatingpeacefulschools.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/3/4/14347576/youth_activist_grant_application_2020.doc
Because the Peace Center has canceled all events for the near future, our ability to raise money as an organization has been heavily impacted. We are using this time to apply for grants and brainstorm new ways of keeping afloat during this time of transition. In the meantime, we unfortunately have to slightly reduce the amount of prize money we are awarding to our winners this year. The updated prizes are listed below:
- Middle School and High School Grand Prize Winners
- $250 each – for outstanding work, all categories considered
- HS First Prize Winners
- Visual Art: $100
- Creative Writing: $100
- Essay: $100
- Middle School First Prize Winners
- Visual Art: $100
- Creative Writing: $100
- Essay: $100
- HS & Middle School Honorable Mentions
- Winners of this category will have their work and name featured on our website / social media pages.