10 Reasons to Participate in the 2022 Ocean Awareness Contest
January 27, 2022You might have heard about our annual Ocean Awareness Contest—an international arts competition that invites middle and high school students ages 11-18 to learn about environmental issues through art-making and creative communication, explore their relationship to a changing world, and become advocates for positive change—but have you decided to participate yet?
This year’s theme, “The Funny Thing About Climate Change,” challenges students to learn about climate change and its impact on the ocean, and to explore new ways to communicate the urgency of the climate crisis through visual art, poetry & spoken word, creative writing, film, performing arts, and interactive and multimedia. Learn more.
If you aren’t convinced yet, here are 10 reasons why you should definitely participate in the 2022 Contest:
1. All the resources you need are at your fingertips
We don’t expect you to know everything about climate change or ocean science. In fact, submitting to the Ocean Awareness Contest is a great opportunity to learn more about issues that impact our environment and livelihoods. Our Resource Studio was made just for you, whether you’re a student or an educator. We’ve curated inspirational artwork, interesting articles and podcasts, fun games, and more for you to explore as you decide how you want to answer the 2022 Contest prompt.
Our monthly Deep Dive webinar series is also awesome inspiration for your submissions. Meet and learn from artists, scientists, community leaders, and activists whose unique strategies are pushing the climate movement to new creative depths by joining one of the upcoming webinars or watching our past recordings.
2. Gain knowledge about climate change and its relationship to and impact on the ocean
Bow Seat President Linda Cabot founded Bow Seat after filming a documentary about environmental issues impacting the Gulf of Maine with her two teenage daughters. What she realized: getting creative helped them learn about these topics in a special and meaningful way.
80% of students said that participating in the 2021 Contest increased their knowledge of water-related issues, and 87% said that creating something for the Contest helped them personally connect with the subject of climate change and its impact on the ocean.
The 2022 Ocean Awareness Contest is your opportunity to learn more about our watery world and how to protect it—while having fun doing it!
3. Submitting to the 2022 Ocean Awareness Contest is easy
All you have to do is create an account on our online system, fill out the information in the required fields, and upload a picture or file of your submission, along with your reflection (and a parent/guardian consent form if you’re under 13 years old). You don’t even have to do everything at once! Your account lets you save what you have in progress, and you can come back to it later.
Once you’ve filled out everything and uploaded your files, just click “Save and Finalize,” and ta-dah! You’ll get a confirmation email to celebrate your accomplishment.
Educators and Adult Sponsors: We’ve even made it easy for you to submit on behalf of one or multiple students. Check out our instructions.
4. Hundreds of cash prizes will be awarded
No joke. We award at least one Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention award in each category of each age division. Oftentimes, we’ll also award Pearl and Notable awards, as well as Judge’s Picks. That’s not even including the We All Rise Prize for participants living in the U.S. who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or Latine, the Voice of the Sea Award for spoken word poetry submissions, and our several Massachusetts-based awards.
Each award is worth between $50 and $1,500, and yes—you can win multiple! We don’t limit how cash awards are used, though we always encourage students to further their passion for the environment and their creative talent.
5. Build your portfolio
Participating in the Ocean Awareness Contest looks great on a resume—you’ll automatically receive a participation certificate after submitting. It shows that you put in the time and effort to participate in an award-winning program and that you care about making a positive difference in the world.
Participating in the Contest is also a great way to start or add to your collection of pieces showcasing your creative talents. Portfolios can help you get into creative programs and art & design schools by showing the range of skills you bring to the table. Your 2022 Contest submission will show admissions officers how well you can communicate about an important issue (climate change) through your chosen art form.
6. Contribute to a global collection of pieces raising awareness for our blue planet
Students have been submitting to the Ocean Awareness Contest since 2011, contributing to a vibrant youth movement for our planet that has a wide-reaching ripple effect. Just as the pieces in our online gallery are a source of inspiration, you can inspire through your artwork, too!
Not only do we share student submissions with the world through our gallery, social media channels, newsletters, and annual yearbooks, we also share them with environmental and arts organizations who are blown away by the creativity and talent of student participants.
7. Your artwork could go places
Bow Seat partners with museums, educational centers, theaters and more to showcase student artwork. Your piece could become part of an exhibit or special showing!
We also partner with other organizations and individual artists (including Bow Seat alumni), to bring student artwork into communities around the world. For example, Contest judge and alumna Ely German painted murals in Iceland using artwork from the Contest as inspiration.
8. Join Bow Seat’s alumni community
Participating in the Ocean Awareness Contest means choosing to contribute your creative skills for the good of our planet. That’s a powerful choice that unites you with tens of thousands of other young artists whom we call Bow Seat alumni! Critical environmental issues like climate change can often make us feel powerless, but when you are part of a supportive community, you have a source of strength and hope.
9. Become eligible for special opportunities
Bow Seat alumni are eligible for the Future Blue Youth Council, a diverse group of young people working together to advance Bow Seat’s mission and to empower fellow peers to advocate for the environment. Additionally, we invite Bow Seat alumni to join our judging crew every year. These leadership opportunities help young artists and ocean advocates connect with one another, develop key skills, build experience, and take advantage of our professional network.
Bow Seat alumni have gone on to become involved in other changemaking projects in the environmental space. For example, 2021 Future Blue Youth Council members E Wen Wong and Jasmine Rodman, and alumna Gitanjali Rao, were selected as 2021 National Geographic Young Explorers!
10. It’s free to enter
You have nothing to lose from submitting to the 2022 Ocean Awareness Contest. Not even your money (we don’t charge an entry fee)!
Have questions about the Contest? The Bow Seat team is here to help! If our FAQs page doesn’t have the answers you’re looking for, you can contact us here. We are also hosting FAQ Fridays on Instagram Live on a weekly basis leading up to the June 13, 2022 Contest deadline.
We can’t wait to see your creative work!