The 2010 Annual
Congressional Art Competition
for students in grades 9-12

"An Artistic Discovery"

Congresswoman Betty McCollum invites high school students in the Fourth Congressional District (Ramsey County, northern Dakota County, and part of Washington County) to participate in the 29th Annual Congressional Art Competition and National Exhibition.

Initiated by Members of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, the event is a nationwide annual art competition that allows high school students from all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories to showcase their artistic ability.  As a result, the winning work from each Congressional district is displayed in an eleven month exhibit in the Cannon tunnel that leads into the U.S. Capitol.  All entries will be displayed at a local exhibition, and runners-up will be displayed in Rep. McCollum's congressional offices.

Winners of the Fourth Congressional District’s competition will receive art scholarships to the College of Visual Art in St. Paul, with the District’s first place winner receiving free airfare for two to Washington D.C. to attend the 2010 Congressional Art Competition National Exhibition’s opening reception.

Artwork accepted mediums are as follows:
o Paintings: oil, acrylics, watercolor, etc.
o Drawings: pastels, colored pencil, pencil, charcoal, ink, markers
o Collage: must be two dimensional
o Prints: lithographs, silkscreen, block prints
o Mixed Media: use of more than two mediums such as pencil, ink, watercolor, etc.
o Computer-generated art
o Photography

Artwork does not need to be framed prior to submission.  Each entry must be original in concept, design, and execution and 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. Work entered must be in the
original medium (that is, not a scanned reproduction of a painting or drawing).

The deadline to submit artwork is May 3rd. You can download the entry form by clicking here.

The Awards Announcement and Recognition evening will be at the College of Visual Art’s Main Gallery on May 10th at 5:30 PM.

If you have any questions, please contact the Congressional Art Competition Coordinator, Tod Herskovitz, in Congresswoman McCollum's St. Paul office at (651) 224-9191.