Skip to main content

Page last updated on June 28, 2018 at 4:32 pm

For more information, please contact

Sue Owens
Program Specialist, Community and Family Resources Department
b-artscontest@bloomington.in.gov
812-349-3468
 

Deadline Extended: Bicentennial Arts Contest Will Celebrate Diversity and Young Artists


Bloomington, Ind. – As part of the City of Bloomington and Monroe County Bicentennial Celebration, area youth are currently invited to submit artwork that showcases a minority or underrepresented person or organization from our community’s history to the Bicentennial Arts Contest. The contest is open to any school-aged youth who lives in Monroe County. Submissions from a broad range of visual and performing arts will be accepted. The deadline for contest entries has been extended through July 13.


“To celebrate the bicentennial, all of our groups wanted to do something that helped showcase people in our community who don’t always get recognition,” said Julie Warren, with the Commission on the Status of Children and Youth. “This is a diverse community with a proud history of inclusion, so we wanted to create a contest that highlighted that inclusiveness and allowed youth in the area to explore it using their creative talents.”


Youth are encouraged to research a person or organization from our community using such local resources as the Monroe County History Center and the Monroe County Public Library and to create a drawing, sculpture, song, play, video, or other artwork that portrays the subject they researched. The subjects should be people from underrepresented populations, such as racial, religious, or ethnic minorities; people in the LGBTQ community; people with disabilities; the economically disadvantaged; or others who have been traditionally overlooked. Art supplies are available at the Monroe County History Center and the Monroe County Public Library, or contact Sue Owens at owenss@bloomington.in.gov. Three individual winners and one group winner will be chosen in each of the four following grade-level categories: K-2, 3-6, 7-8, and 9-12. Their works will be displayed at the Monroe County History Center in an exhibition opening with a reception on July 27, when prizes will be presented to the winners.


The Bicentennial Arts Contest was created by a collaborative group representing the Bloomington Commission on the Status of Children and Youth, the Commission on the Status of Black Males, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Human Rights Commission, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration Commission, and the Bloomington Arts Commission, along with representatives of the Monroe County Bicentennial Planning Committee.


Entries can be submitted in person to the Community and Family Resources Department at City Hall (401 N. Morton St., Suite 260) or via email to b-artscontest@bloomington.in.gov by 5 p.m. on July 13.  Official guidelines, cover sheet, and a list of research resources are available at bloomington.in.gov/bicentennial/arts-contest.


This contest is endorsed by the City of Bloomington Monroe County Bicentennial Committee.


###