High School Students Vie for Scholarship and Opportunity to promote Slogan “Art Leads to Innovation”

High school students interested in a design career will have a unique opportunity to exercise their artistic talents to the test by entering the Poster Design Scholarship Competition, sponsored by The Art Institutes and Americans for the Arts.

Students will create original poster artwork that expresses the slogan, “Art Leads to Innovation.” More than $100,000 in scholarships will be awarded, with the first place prize-winning student receiving a $25,000 scholarship to study design at The Art Institute of Dallas. Entry deadline is February 10, 2006.

“The Art Institutes are pleased to be collaborating with Americans for the Arts because we believe, as educators, this is a critical time to support and strengthen the universal role that the arts play in our lives.” says Simon Lumley, president for The Art Institute of Dallas.

According to Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, “as funding for arts programs across the country continue to face budget cuts, we want young people to remember that art is a valuable tool of innovation, which designs how we all live.”

The competition takes place in two stages; a preliminary competition will be held at the 31 Art Institutes locations in the US and Canada in March. Winners from the preliminary competition will have their entries placed into consideration for the final stage and national judging, which takes place in April.

The first-place winner and other top national winners’ work will be used in a promotional calendar, to be distributed to high schools across North America. In addition, The Art Institutes will create an online gallery of all scholarship winning artwork on its Web site www.artinstitutes.edu/posterdesign.

The contest is for graduating high school seniors interested in pursuing a career in design. Students must submit an original poster design, a current high school transcript and a statement describing their design process, and why they want to attend one of The Art Institutes. In April, an industry panel of judges selected by Americans for the Arts and The

Art Institutes will assess each student’s poster based on the specified criteria. Contestants are notified of their winnings by May 12, 2006.

Locations participating include: The Art Institute of Washington (Arlington, VA), The Art Institute of Atlanta, GA, The New England Institute of Art (Boston, MA), The Art Institute of California–Orange County, The Art Institute of California-San Diego, The Art Institute of California-San Francisco, The Art Institute of Charlotte, The Art Institute of Colorado (Denver), The Art Institute of Dallas, TX, The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, FL, The Art Institute of Houston, TX, The Art Institute of Indianapolis, IN, The Art Institute of Las Vegas, The Art Institute of Tampa, The Art Institute of Toronto, ON, Miami International University of Art & Design, FL, The Art Institutes International Minnesota, (Minneapolis), The Art Institute of New York City, NY, The Art Institute of Ohio- Cincinnati, The Art Institute of Philadelphia, PA, The Art Institute of Phoenix, AZ, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, PA, The Art Institute of Portland, OR, The Art Institute of Seattle, WA, The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago, The Illinois Institute of Art-Schaumburg, The Art Institute of Vancouver, (Burnaby and downtown locations).

For more information on the competition or an application, visit www.artinstitutes.edu/poster.

About Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, it has a record of 45 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.