The National PTA Reflections Arts Contest encourages students to explore the arts and express themselves by providing positive recognition for their artistic efforts. Since it was founded in 1969 by Mary Lou Anderson, millions of students have benefited from this program. Participation is open to all Freedom Middle School students.
Use the arts to share your personal Reflections on this year’s theme. Your work will be reviewed for interpretation of theme, creativity, and technique.
Need some inspiration? Find suggestions on interpreting the theme here.
Entries must be related to the theme "What My Culture Means to Me" and will be accepted in the following categories:
Submit works of fiction or nonfiction, including but not limited to:
Prose
Poetry
Reflective essay
Screenplay or play script
Narrative
Short story
Use of copyrighted material is prohibited.
Writing must not exceed 2,000 words.
Your entry must reflect the theme "What My Culture Means to Me"
Entrants may write in their primary language as long as an interpretive English translation is also attached.
Works of both fine and design arts are accepted, including but not limited to:
Collage
Digital art and graphics (drawings/paintings/illustration)
Drawing
Fashion clothes and jewelry
Fiber work
Painting
Printmaking
Sculpture
2D artworks must be no larger than 24x30 inches with matting. No framed entries. Include one digital image of artwork with your submission.
3D artwork submissions must contain 3 digital images of artwork at different angles.
Image(s) are used for artwork identification, judging and exhibition purposes. Accepted file formats: JPEG, JPG, and PNG. Please hold onto your work as winners will be displayed.
Your entry must reflect the theme "What My Culture Means to Me"
All styles and combinations of instrumentation are accepted. Entrant must be the composer and may also be the performer or one of the performers.
Software may be used to produce an audio recording. Entries containing algorithmic composition techniques are not accepted. Use of copyrighted material is prohibited.
An audio recording of the composition must be included and must not exceed 5 minutes in length and 1,000 megabyte in file size.
Accepted audio file formats include: MP3 and WAV.
Notation (score/tablature) in PDF format is required. In place of a notated score entrant may include a written reflective statement that provides a musically technical explanation of how you wrote the music (100 words or less).
Your entry must reflect the theme "What My Culture Means to Me"
Ready to submit your work of art related to the theme "What My Culture Means to Me"? Now it's time to fill out the online entry form. Forms must:
Include a student and parent signature
List a title for your work
Include an artist statement that describes, in 10 to 100 words, what inspired the work, how it relates to the theme, and the content of the work.
Prefer a paper form? Need help photographing your entry? Any other questions? PTSA can help! Contact us at freedommiddleptsa@gmail.com.
Students submit their original work of art and entry form October 26 to their English teacher or through the PTSA portal.
Winners will be selected by FMS PTSA judges based on how well the student uses their artistic vision to portray the theme, their originality and creativity.
FMS PTSA will celebrate winners at the school level and forward the first place entries in each grade and category to Virginia PTA for regional judging.
Virginia PTA will submit the state’s winning entries to National PTA to compete against students from across the United States, and hold a Student Awards Celebration in March/April.
National PTA will select and announce winners of the national-level contest in May.
Copyright:
Plagiarized entries will be disqualified. Use of copyrighted material, including any copyrighted cartoon characters, copyrighted recorded music or copyrighted photographs, stock images or material downloaded from the internet, is not acceptable, except for the following:
Entries may include public places, well-known products, trademarks or certain other copyrighted material as long as that copyrighted material is incidental to the subject matter of the piece and/or is a smaller element of a whole. The resulting work cannot try to establish an association between the student and the trademark/business/material or influence the purchase/non-purchase of the trademarked good.
Visual arts entries may include portions of existing copyrighted works, such as photographs, magazine or digital media clippings and/or type cut out of a newspaper, as long as those portions of copyrighted works are used to create a completely new and different work of art.
Entry Requirements:
Only new pieces of artwork inspired by the current year’s theme may be submitted.
Each entry must be the original work of one student only. An adult may not alter the creative integrity of a student’s work. Because the program is designed to encourage and recognize each student’s individual creativity, help from an adult or collaboration with other students is not allowed. Other individuals may appear in or perform a student’s work, but the work itself must be the creative product of one student only. Only one student may be recognized as the award recipient for each entry.
Digital technology and/or software can be used to develop, enhance and/or present an entry but may not provide the primary design and/or concept. Entrants must provide a brief description of the tools and method, including any generative elements.
Judging:
Entries are reviewed at the school, state and national levels. Each PTA determines its reviewers for the program. Entries will be reviewed primarily on how well the student uses their artistic vision to portray the theme, their originality and creativity. The National PTA Reflections® program makes no restrictions on content or subject matter in artwork submitted by the local, regional or state levels. National PTA reserves the right to use its sole discretion in selecting the submissions to be recognized at the national level. Under no condition may parents or students contact a reviewer to dispute the status/score of any entry. Each PTA in its sole discretion will select finalists for exhibition and provide awards/prizes. Awards are announced per local and state procedures. National awards are announced May 1 at PTA.org/Reflections.
Ownership And License. Ownership in any submission shall remain the property of the entrant, but entry into this program constitutes entrant’s irrevocable permission and consent that PTA may display, copy, reproduce, enhance, print, sublicense, publish, distribute and create derivative works for PTA purposes. PTA is not responsible for lost or damaged entries. Submission of entry into the PTA Reflections program constitutes acceptance of all rules and conditions.
Participating Entities. This program is administered by the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and PTA affiliates. Parent groups not affiliated with National PTA are not eligible to sponsor this program.
Official PTA Reflections Program Rules
By submitting an artwork to the National PTA Reflections Program, entrants accept and agree to be bound by the official rules for participation as well as the entry requirements for their specific arts category and division. Additional state program requirements may apply. Any violation of these rules may, at PTA’s discretion, result in disqualification. All decisions of the reviewers regarding this program are final and binding in all respects. (The “PTA” referred to in these rules include all PTAs reviewing the submission).