Congressional Art Awards

Call for Art

The Congressional Art Competition began in 1982 to provide an opportunity for Members of Congress to encourage and recognize the artistic talents of their young constituents. Since then, over 700,000 high school students have competed for the honor of having their work shown in the U.S. Capitol.

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, Congressman Michael Michaud and the Maine Arts Commission invite Maine high school students (9-12) to participate in this year’s Congressional Art Competition. The selected students will have the opportunity to have their artwork displayed in the Cannon Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol for one year, beginning in June 2014.

Each year, the U.S. House of Representatives sponsors a competition for art created by high school students from every Congressional district in the United States. This annual call for art has provided a grand scale opportunity for Maine art students to be recognized and highlights how essential quality arts education is for all students.

Finalists and Runners Up, their families and art teachers will be invited to a reception at the Blaine House in Augusta where the selected students will be recognized. The Blaine House event is the annual celebration that highlights the close partnership between the Maine Arts Commission and Maine’s Congressional offices. Both of Maine’s Congressional representatives are highly enthusiastic about this program and strongly encourage their constituents to apply.

Competition Guidelines

Entry Requirements:

1. Must be a high school student: grades 9-12.
2. Work must be two-dimensional.
3. Work must be unframed, and no larger than 25 in. by 25 in.
4. Work must be no more than 4 inches in depth.
5. Each entry must be original in concept, design, and execution and not violate any U.S. copyright laws.
6. Any entry that has been copied from an existing photo (not the student’s own), painting, graphic, advertisement, or any other work produced by another person is a violation of the competition rules and will not be accepted.
7. Work entered must be in the original medium (not a scanned reproduction of a painting or drawing).
8. One entry per student.(Please note that while schools may submit multiple entries, individual students are limited to one entry.)
9. Acceptable categories:

Paintings (oil, acrylics, watercolor, etc); Drawings (pastels, colored pencil, pencil, charcoal, ink, markers); Collage (must be two-dimensional); Prints (lithographs, silkscreen, block prints); Mixed media (use of more than two mediums); Computer generated art; Photography.

Submissions:

To be considered for review, the student information and release form AND artwork must be submitted in digital format. Actual artwork will not be accepted for review.

–Artwork format must be a digital or scanned image saved as JPEG (.jpg) with resolution of 300 dpi or higher at 5” x 7”. When you save your image, use the following naming conventions for the file:

• Artist name_title of image_year of work.jpg (Example: JaneDoe_Untitled_2014.jpg).
• Maximum of 72 characters in the file name.
• Name cannot contain any spaces or characters other than letters, numbers, underscore or hyphen.

–A completed and signed student information and release form must also be submitted. Please go to https://mainearts.maine.gov/Pages/Education/Congressional-Art-Comp.

Forms can be saved at a Word document or as PDF. When you save your signed student information and release form, use the following naming conventions for the file:

• Artist name_title of image_year of work.doc  (Example: JaneDoe_Untitled_2013.doc).

• Maximum of 72 characters in the file name.
• Name cannot contain any spaces or characters other than letters, numbers, underscore or hyphen.

Submission materials will be accepted as email attachments only (not embedded in the email) and should be sent to Julie Horn at julie.horn@maine.gov.  Please put “CAC Submission” in the subject line of your email.

Your email should have the following two attachments:

1. Image in .jpg form as specified above
2. Student information and release form in .doc or .pdf form as specified above.

***Entries that do not have the specified documentation will be considered ineligible.***

The final decision regarding the suitability of all artwork for the 2014 Congressional Art Competition exhibition in the Capitol will be made by a panel of qualified persons chaired by the Architect of the Capitol.  Artwork must adhere to the policy of the House Office Building Commission. In accordance with this policy, exhibits depicting subjects of contemporary political controversy or a sensationalistic or gruesome nature are not allowed. It is necessary that all artwork be reviewed by the panel chaired by the Architect of the Capitol and any portion not in consonance with the Commission’s policy will be omitted from the exhibit.

For information about the Congressional Art Competition please contact Julie Horn at the Maine Arts Commission, at 207/287-2790, or through e-mail at julie.horn@maine.gov.