Congratulations to the following students who won our photo contest!
Their work stood out among the almost 200 submissions we received from more than 10 countries.
11-13 age group:
1st place: “Smashing the World Around Us” by Megan Allan (12), Aberdeen, Scotland
2nd place: “Behind the Landscape” by Giovanna Ribeiro (12), Salvador, Brazil
3rd place: “Gender Injustice” by Damour Yuna (11), Sainte-Marie île de la Reunion, France
14-19 age group :
1st place : “You Don’t Know” by Helena Amado (16), Brasilia, Brazil
2nd place : “Rallying Cry” by Claire Smith (18), Kansas City, USA
3rd place : “#Educationisnotacrime” by Sayna Zahrai (16), Brasilia, Brazil
Honorable Mention:
“The Pursuit of Education” by Mariamawit Girmay (18), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
“Beauty is Pain (but not yours)” by Denis Marchitan (15), Spain
“Don’t Silence Me” by Daylla Cristine Santos Silva (16), São Cristovão, Brazil
Art for Social Justice Contest (2020)
Thank you to all who participated in our Art contest. We had a hard time choosing only 3 winners among the 216 submissions we received, so we chose 5! you can see the winners below.
these are the finalists who received honorable mention.
Connie Creek, a Kansas City artist who chose the winning artworks, shared these words with the participants:
"I want to congratulate each student who entered the contest for finding the courage to address such difficult topics. Many pieces impact the viewer in meaningful ways. Although I found these five works very much equal in the artists' abilities to represent an important social issue through visual means, here are my reasons for the order.”
First place: “Aquecimento Global” (Global Warming) by Altiery Silva, age 18. Colégio Estadual João Dias Guimarães, São Fransisco, Brazil.
“I chose the piece Global Warming because although it is also an environmental issue it is, as the artist states so well, an issue that affects our entire planet--every single being on earth. It is a social concern that requires all societies in all countries to work together to protect our earth. The artist combined symbols representing time and nature with thought and skill to deliver the message.” Connie Creek
“The social issue that inspired me was global warming. I tried to represent the chosen theme in a broad way. I used the hourglass, which represents time, as the basis of the illustration and how it affects us. I also tried to show how our actions can harm us and harm everything around us: animals like the polar bear that depends on glaciers, which at the moment are melting quickly thanks to warming. At the bottom I represented pollution, which contributes to increased warming, harming all of us.” Altiery Silva
3rd Place: “Social Justice needs Change” by Manoela Moura, age 17. School of the Nations, Brasília, Brazil.
“For my art for social justice piece I chose to depict a protest inspired by the Black Lives Movement that started in the United States this year due to the case of George Floyd. Nonetheless, I decided to show in my work not only people protesting against racism, but also against various injustices that are faced daily in the reality we currently live in. Social Justice is the idea that everyone deserves equal economic and political rights and opportunities, and the populations I depicted in my artwork are commonly deprived from it. Each protest board in my drawing represents a group that commonly face social injustice, due to factors such as sexism, racism, homophobia, religious discrimination, and social class inequality. Therefore, the piece shows people fighting to stop this reality, with the intent of gaining their rights and access to the same opportunities as more privileged groups.”
1st place $250, 2nd place $150, 3rd place $100
Second place: “Não ao Silêncio” (Violence Against Women in Times of Pandemic) by Pedro Luiz, age 16. Centro de Excelência Vitória de Santa Maria, Aracaju, Brazil.
“A very close second is the piece, Violence Against Women. The photograph is powerfully graphic in delivering information almost too graphic for us to witness. The layout of the image adds to its emotional impact. Eliminating violence against women, as well as against many other groups, is an injustice that every country must grapple with and strive to eliminate." Connie Creek
“The art of photography represents here one of the greatest social injustices: violence against women's lives. The woman is a victim of violence inside and outside the home. The proliferation of this injustice is confirmed by statistics that point to alarming rates in this period of social isolation due to the pandemic. The art of photography in the philosophy of spaces screams for equality and respect!” Pedro Luiz
3rd Place: “Adeus à Educação” (Goodbye to Education) by Maria Eduarda Carvalho Silva Aragão, age 16, Ação Fraternal de Itabuna, Itabuna, Brazil.
“In my work, I represented this scenario of digital exclusion and difficulty in accessing distance education in an intense and clear way. The girl on the floor represents all the students who are missing their opportunities. I chose a black woman because it is black women who find it most difficult to study in Brazil, I thought it would be representative. School supplies that are flying with their wings represent education. The girl also has wings, but they were cut off, which can be seen from the bloody scissors on the floor and their plucked feathers. This girl's wings are the opportunity, the scissors that removed her feathers, the digital divide.”
3rd Place: “Dysphoria” by
Wesley Sterbach, age 15,
Shawnee Mission West, Overland Park, Kansas, United States.
“My social justice issue is transgender rights/awareness. As a trans man, people don’t understand the pain we feel on our day to day life. The feeling of imprisonment to our own bodies. My artwork shows the feelings I feel as a trans man. The pink (female) face that is splitting apart shows my outer appearance that is entangling the blue (make face) to show I feel trapped due to my dysphoria. The male face is to show the true person I am on the inside. And that my appearance does not define me and it will fall apart. In the end, I am a boy no matter my appearance. I painted this oil painting to show my struggle with self acceptance.”