Competition

Artwork Guidelines & Rules

 
 
 

Challenge Questions/Prompts

The 2024-2025 Challenge Questions are:

1) What will your community look like when we are not using fossil fuels for energy in 20-30 years? 

2) What jobs will be needed to adapt to more extreme weather?  

3) How can plants and animals adapt to a warmer ocean?

 
 

Artwork Guidelines & Rules

 

Each entry will be judged by a panel of experts in the field of informal science learning, marketing and communication, art, and education. While art evaluation is not a science, the following specifications and rubric should provide a meaningful guide to review the quality of your work prior to submission.

These dimensions are mandatory.

These dimensions are mandatory.

  • Select one challenge question to address.

  • Maintain a 1 inch border all the way around the picture, which means that for the 24” x 9” poster, you have a 22” x 7” work space. A standard piece of poster board/paper is 22” x 28”. You can make two Cool Science entries from one sheet. If you get a 24”x36” poster board/paper, you can make four Cool Science entries from one sheet.

  • Landscape orientation.

  • No photography or clip art is allowed.

  • Write an artist statement of up to 250 words.

  • If submitting electronically, the JPEG or GIF file should have a resolution of 300 dpi.

 

During August 2020, the Cool Science team held workshops for community educators. Although the videos were created for a specific audience, you might find the following video helpful.

 

Artist Statement
Guidelines

Along with the artwork a reflective artist statement of up to 250 words should be submitted. The statement should address questions such as:

 
 

  • How did you address the challenge question in your artwork?

  • What are you trying to say in your work?

  • Why did you create your artwork in the way that you did?

  • Did the art competition encourage you to work with art materials in a new way?

  • What do you hope people will learn from your artwork

  • What did you learn?

  • What inspired you?

 
 

Cool Science Resources

 
 

The Cool Science Website provides several types of resources you might find helpful.
Click on the following links to learn more:

 
 

Tips for Successful Entries

The following are a few tips to get you started in the right direction:

  • Generally speaking, less is more in this competition. Because the artwork will be placed on buses, simpler designs will be more effective than very complex compositions.

  • Restrain your use of words in your composition. The less you write the better, but carefully written text can be very important as well. So, think carefully about what you write and don’t overdo it!

  • Be sure you poster is readable from 5 feet away.

  • “Out of home media” including artwork on buses, is a unique form of communication. While it is easily accessible by the viewer, it is also fleeting. Viewers do not usually spend more than a few seconds considering the content. Nevertheless, it is a great platform for clear, visual, and direct messages. It does present challenges when trying to convey large amounts of information and detail.

  • We recommend that you pay attention to out of home media such as billboards, placards, and posters next time you ride the train or bus. Which advertisements do you think are best? Why? What are the elements that make an effective advertisement? You can use your findings to shape your project!

 
 

How do artists get people’s attention?

Think about when you’re in a car, on a bus, or out walking. What do you see on street signs? How about billboards or signs in store windows? What makes you notice these things and how do you know what they’re trying to tell you? Artists use a number of methods to get your attention and keep it.