By Jimmie Johnson III
On Thursday, Congressman Ben Cline announced his district would participate in the 2020 Congressional Art Competition.
The Congressional Art Competition is open to all high school students in the Sixth District. The winning artwork will be displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol alongside other pieces from across the country and will also be featured on House.gov’s Congressional Art Competition page.
“All students from Virginia’s Sixth Congressional District are encouraged to participate in this year’s art competition,” Cline said in a press release. “This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase artistic ability and for the selected winner to have their art on display for thousands of Capitol visitors throughout the next year. I am pleased that the competition will continue on as planned, and that the event has moved to electronic submissions to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved.”
The artwork must be two dimensional and accepted mediums include:
• Paintings: oil, acrylics, watercolor, etc.
• Drawings: colored pencil, pencil, ink, marker, pastels, charcoal (It is recommended that charcoal and pastel drawings be fixed.)
• Collages: 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
• Photographs
Each framed artwork can be no larger than 26 inches high, 26 inches wide, and 4 inches deep.
Each entry must be original in concept, design, and execution and may not violate U.S. copyright laws. For more information on copyright laws, click here .
Due to COVID-19, submissions will only be accepted electronically. Students should submit photographs of their entry and a release form, which can be found here, to ArtCompetitionVA06@mail.house.gov. Entries are due by May 1, 2020 and the winner will be announced May 7.
The Sixth District includes all of Amherst, Augusta, Bath, Botetourt, Highland, Page, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren counties, along with the cities of Buena Vista, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Staunton and Waynesboro. It also includes parts of Bedford and Roanoke Counties.