Congresswoman Jackie Speier

April 16, 2012

Dear Friends,

I am now accepting entries for the 2012 Congressional Art Competition. Please encourage your child, niece, nephew, grandchild or a friend’s child to participate. The Congressional Art Competition is a wonderful opportunity to encourage art education in our schools and to give students a chance to gain national recognition for their talents.

The competition is open to all students in grades 9-12 who live or go to school in the 12th Congressional District. The winner will be flown to Washington DC for a reception where winners from all 50 States will be recognized and have his or her art displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year. The second and third place winners will have their art displayed in my District Office for one year.

Each student is encouraged to submit one piece of art that fits the following guidelines:

Must be two dimensional
Can be no larger than 28”x28”x4” (28 inches high, 28 inches wide, and 4 inches deep) including the frame, cannot be more than 15 lbs. in weight
May not violate any U.S. copyright laws. 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.
Must be submitted in the original medium (scanned reproductions of a painting or drawing will be disqualified
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 such as pencil, ink, watercolor, etc.
Computer-generated art
Photography

All students submitting art work must include a completed Congressional Art Competition Student Information & Release Form.

The deadline for submission has been extended to Monday, April 26, 2012. You can mail or drop off your art work in person Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. at my District Office:

Office of Congresswoman Jackie Speier
Attention: Katrina Rill, Congressional Art Competition
400 South El Camino Real, Suite 410
San Mateo,CA 94402

On Thursday, May 1, 6-7 p.m., I will host a gallery showing and award ceremony for all contestants, their art teachers, families and friends at my district office. At the event, I will announce the 1st – 3rd place winners. Please RSVP by Friday, April 30, 2012 to Katrina Rill at (650) 342-0300 or katrina.rill@mail.house.gov. Please indicate the number of people who will be attending, your phone number, email, and the name of the artist you are joining.

Please share this information with all young artists you know. This is an outstanding opportunity for us to celebrate the importance of arts education in our community. If you have any questions or need further assistance, contact my district office at (650) 342-0300.

All the best,

jackie