Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs (Bow Seat) have announced the winners of the 2020 Ocean Awareness Contest, a global arts competition that engages youth in creatively raising awareness of and advocating for environmental issues impacting the planet.
The 2020 Contest theme, “Climate Hope: Transforming Crisis,” challenged participants to create a piece that shares their ideas for confronting the climate emergency and emphasizes the role of hope in making meaningful change. Approximately 5,300 students from 92 countries and 49 U.S. states responded with paintings, poems, songs, documentaries, multimedia, and stories that highlighted renewable energy sources, technological innovations, and nature-based solutions, as well as tangible personal actions that individuals can adopt in their everyday lives.
Protesting also emerged as a significant theme among student entries, and many participants addressed the connections between climate change and crises including the COVID-19 pandemic and social injustice.
The Senior Division (ages 15-18) Gold Award winners, who each received a US$1,500 (~1263 Euros) award, are:
* Art – Jingyi Yang (Washington)
* Film – Yonah Sadeh (Connecticut)
* Interactive & Multimedia – Rose Whelan (Pennsylvania)
* Music – Zanaiah Billups (Georgia)
* Poetry – Elane Kim (California)
* Prose – Minseo Kim (Australia)
The Junior Division (ages 11-14) Gold Award winners, who each received a $1,000 (~842 Euros) award, are:
* Art – Ahrin Lee (Singapore)
* Film – Cassiana Silva Young (Canada)
* Interactive & Multimedia – Zuzanna Witek & Angela Lato? (Poland)
* Music – Salome Agbaroji (California)
* Poetry – Nuan Ning Teioh (Malaysia)
* Prose – Carly Liao (California)
In addition, the new $1,500 Voice of the Sea Award, which recognizes an outstanding Spoken Word submission, was presented to Abigia Debebe from Ethiopia.
Check out all of the 2020 Ocean Awareness Contest winners at bowseat.org.
(Image credit: Jingyi Yang, Mercer Island, WA)
