ART CONTEST

With the assistance of the United Nations Cyber School Bus, an online education component of the UN's Department of Public Information's Outreach Division, an island youth art competition was launched in August 2004.

The competition was open to school and non-school youth and there were three age categories: 9-13 years, 14-17 years and 18-23 years. This also allowed younger age groups to get involved in YVIL. A special website was set up to provide information, entry forms and background to the four themes:

• Life and love in islands
• My island home
• Money in my pocket
• My island in ten years time

The art competition was promoted through YVIL announcements, circulation to a wide mailing list, the YVIL website, and the UN Cyber School Bus. The art competition generated a lot of interest among youth and the media, e.g. ABC Radio Australia in Melbourne followed up on the art competition for their current affairs programme called Pacific Beat.

Three hundred entries were received from 13 countries; most of the entries came from the two younger age groups - the youth in school.

Countries submitting entries were: Dominican Republic, Fiji, Hawaii, Indonesia, Mauritius, Micronesia, Palau, Saipan, St Lucia, Seychelles, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

The standard of art in the entries was very high.

The entries were assessed by a team of seven judges in October 2004. The best entries in each category were then prepared for display and shipped to Mauritius where they were displayed at the conference centre in Domaine les Pailles during the main governmental meeting from 10-14 January 2005.

The art contest was successful, especially in widening the exposure of island youth to YVIL and in making Youth Visioning accessible for a younger age group.

All the entries, including the winners can be viewed at the United Nations Cyberschoolbus website.

Preparatory Activities:
- Regional Meetings
- National Activities
- Art Contest