Young Artists Contest 2011 (Traditional Media)

 *YAC 2010 award certificate featuring an artwork by a young artist, metal-icarus, who was one of the winners of the 2009 event.  She will be participating this year, which will be her final eligibility year.  I look forward to having her on board the judges panel in the future YAC. 


   I am so pleased to say that this contest is in its third year, and we are able to offer more prizes than ever, including deviantART subscriptions (in length varying from 1-month to 12-month), gift arts, prints, features, and dA points.  I started this contest in 2009 when my daughter complained about having no chance at many of the contests (either publicly sponsored by dA or privately by individual deviants) where many of the participants were professional artists.  
   
   With the widespread funding cuts all across the US school districts, artistically inclined students seemingly have less and less opportunities for showing (and competing for due recognition of) their art.  When I was growing up in Japan, I had art competitions twice a year, that were sponsored by the city government and the school district, supported by larger communities as well (Winners from city competitions had opportunity to advance to regional competitions.).  Art and music were regular part of the school curriculum as was P.E. all through middle school/junior high school. 
   
   It was my humble wish to host this contest for the youths in dA community to have a fair shot at competing, so this contest has three age categories -- Category 1 (13 year olds), Category 2 (15 and under), and Category 3 (17 and under).  I have past winners moving onto study art at college and university level, as well as young artists looking forward to this event every year and hoping to join me in coming years as one of the judges.   With entries into previous years' events numbering around 300, it has always been a wonderful event.

   I am blessed to have many dA community members/friends come forward with generous donations to make this event possible again and more fun than ever.  This is the first time in the contest's history that we are able to offer subscriptions all the way down to the third place winners.  With winners chosen for each of the three categories, this is a contest that can be hard on the wallet, had it not for the volunteers and donors who give freely.  I'm just so grateful for the many friends (new and old) continuing to support this event.  I am looking forward to seeing the wonderful art that will be coming in.