Art Contest

About the Art Contest

In an effort to bolster awareness of the role of county government on Cape Cod, Barnstable County is celebrating National County Government Month during April 2023 and has launched a campaign highlighting its initiatives tackling water quality issues on Cape Cod: “Barnstable County is Protecting Cape Cod’s Water.”

The county invites Grades 1-12 students to put their imagination into action and demonstrate the importance of safeguarding water on Cape Cod!

Share your unique perspective in two parts:

• Completing this thought-provoking prompt: “Protecting water on Cape Cod is important because…”
• Submit artwork inspired by your complete sentence.

Eligibility

Students residing and attending school in one of the 15 towns on Cape Cod, and who are 18 years of age and younger in grades 1 through 12 are eligible, including home-schooled children.

Each submission must be original artwork created in the current school year by one student.

Artwork Guidelines

• Submitted artwork must be inspired by the student’s completion of this sentence: “Protecting water on Cape Cod is important because…”
• The artwork must be horizontal 11″ x 8.5″ (PDF or JPEG).
• For digital art or graphic design submissions, the design must be 300 dpi and RGB color.

Judging Criteria

• Technical skill: The artwork must display artistic skill in painting, drawing or digital art.
• Creativity: The artwork must be original in its expression of a personal vision or voice. It must be the student’s own work and cannot be plagiarized or in violation of any copyright.
• Artist’s statement: Along with the artwork, each student is required to submit a completed statement, “Protecting water on Cape Cod is important because…”
• Each entry must include the artist’s name, grade, school, town and contact information (for the student, a parent or guardian’s email address and phone number) and a teacher’s (email address and phone number).
• The panel of judges will include Barnstable County officials.

Categories

Category I: Grades 1-3

Category II: Grades 4-6

Category III: Grades 7-9

Category IV: Grades 10-12

Honoring the Winners

Barnstable County will honor (4) talented students across (4) categories, and (4) runners-up from each category. All winners will have their artwork displayed on the Barnstable County website, social media and other printed materials, and winners will be invited to attend a future Barnstable County Commissioners meeting to receive an Award Certificate.

Deadline and Submission Requirements

• The competition submission period begins on April 1, 2023, and will remain open until May 31, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. ET.
• Students must submit their artwork for consideration at this link or by clicking the button below.
• The artwork must be submitted on the form as a PDF or JPEG. (Winners will be notified and asked to mail their original artwork to Barnstable County.)
• The artist must provide their name, age, grade level, school, teacher or art teacher and contact information for a guardian or teacher must be provided on the submission form.
• For digital art or graphic design submissions, the design must be 300 dpi and RGB color.
• Only one submission per student is allowed.
• There is no entry fee.

Copyright

• Artists retain ownership of all copyrights regarding their works of art.
• The Winners and Finalists grant Barnstable County permission to reproduce the content of their application form for an unlimited period of time. This right is limited to communications made by the County (press releases, publications on the website, publications on social networks, etc.).