About the Contest
VISIONS OF UNITY
Student Literature and Arts Contest
Open only to high school students in Torrance, California.
Share your vision of unity and you may win cash, get published, and be publicly honored by community leaders, elected officials, teachers, and your peers.
The contest categories are:
Literature: Poetry, Essay, and Short Story
Visual Arts: Drawing, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, and Poster
The Contest:
The purpose of the Visions of Unity Contest is to encourage Torrance youth to reflect on their role in resolving critical community issues, to artistically express their unique ideas and ideals and to take initiative in enhancing unity among diverse groups within their community. The contest recognizes exceptional use of creativity to communicate and express ideals in a way that broadens minds and touches hearts.
The Visions of Unity contest was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King whose birthday comes on or near the contest’s deadline every year. The contest engages youth, their families, community leaders, education providers, sponsors and donors in the power of artistic expression to cross cultural boundaries and forge new bonds as members of one human family, to explore ways individuals can work together to cultivate greater healing, harmony and understanding within their communities.
Entries should depict the need for and benefits of intercultural or interracial harmony and reflect on resolving critical community issues. Your contribution should convey your ideas, feelings, or personal stories about unity, compassion, understanding, cooperation, etc. among people in our society today. Creativity is important, so avoid standard portraits or biographies of civil rights leaders. We want to see your honesty and thoughtfulness as well as your artistic and literary talents to communicate and express ideals in a way that broadens minds and touches hearts. Entries must reflect a metaphorical, fictional or personal incident.
The Human Relations Forum of Torrance along with community partners seeks to celebrate diversity, promote education and understanding while cultivating a sense of belonging for the diverse population of Torrance.
Community partners include Torrance Memorial Medical Center, the Volunteer Center, South Bay-Harbor-Long Beach, Torrance Unified School District, League of Women Voters Torrance and Palos Verdes Chapters LINKS, Inc.
Entries will be judged by professionals according to the following criteria: 1) effective treatment of the theme; 2) originality and creative use of the medium; and 3) mastery of the art form, including grammar and technical details.
The Awards Celebration: All contestants who place 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or Honorable Mention will publicly present their work at the Monday, March 28, 2011 Visions of Unity Awards Celebration and have their work published in the annual Visions of Unity literary anthology. Winners will also receive cash awards thanks to the generosity of the sponsors below. In the last 10 years, 298 students have received awards and over $20,000 in cash prizes.
Donations for awards to the winners from:
Torrance Toyota Motor Sales
Los Angles County Supervisor Don Knabe
Welch and Company Accountancy Corporation
Ruth Vogel
Torrance Memorial Medical Center
Baszile Metals Service
Baha’i Communities of the South Bay
Shirley and Chin-Ming Ho
Ashcraft Design
Teresa and David Langness
Shirley Borks
Shirley Starke Wallace
Pat Kromka
Dorothy Wu
Contest Coordinators:
Lea Ann King;
Visual Arts,Heidi Ashcraft;
Prose judge, Jean Adelsman;
Poetry judge/Anthology editor, Teresa Langness
Questions? Contact us at visionsofunity@gmail.com
Content copyright 2009-2011. Visions of Unity. All rights reserved.
