Entries are now open for the 13th annual Ocean Awareness Competition, a platform for young people to learn about environmental issues through art and creative communication, explore their relationship with a changing world and become advocates for positive change.

Theme 2024: Tell your climate story

The awareness to Ocean 2024 - Tell your climate story - encourages you to become a climate witness and share your own unique climate story. They ask you to creatively express your personal experiences, ideas or perceptions about the changing reality of the climate. Take this opportunity to learn more about the climate crisis and its impact on your family and community, and to examine your individual responses to a changing world.

Ocean Awareness competition prize

• Cash prizes are awarded to the winners in all categories, at both junior and senior level.
  • Gold : 1000 $
  • Silver : 750 $
  • Bronze : 500 $
  • Pearl : 250 $
  • Honourable Mention: 100 $
• Price We all rise
  • As part of its long-term efforts to increase the diversity of the program's participants, Bow Seat sponsors the We All Rise Awards, prizes worth a total of 5,000 $ specifically for young Americans who identify as Black, Native American and/or Latino.
  • Five $500 $ scholarships in the junior (ages 11-14) and senior (ages 15-18) divisions - a total of 10 awards - will be offered to U.S. students who identify as Black, Native American and/or Latino in the Ocean Awareness competition, and whose entries demonstrate outstanding artistic achievement in the category of their choice. Cash awards are unrestricted and may be used for tuition, art supplies or personal expenses. Selected winning entries will also be featured in the following year's We All Rise promotional material.
• Voice of the Sea Prize
  • Visit partnership with poet/activist/educator Tayllor Johnson
    • As the ocean awareness competition has grown over the years, young artists have continued to push the boundaries of the categories in ways that have intrigued and moved them. The Voice of the Sea Award was inspired by the reception of a growing number of spoken word poems, pieces that have truly come to life through performance. To celebrate this powerful mode of expression, Bow Seat is rewarding a spoken word poetry submission with Voice of the Sea awards in each age category: a 500 $ award for a junior submission and a 500 $ award for a senior submission. Entries must meet the requirements for submission in the Poetry and spoken word category.
• Bay State Award (Massachusetts students only)
  • All Ocean Awareness contest entrants who reside in Massachusetts will automatically be considered for the Bay State Award, a special recognition to celebrate the home state's young artists, thinkers and creative activists! From the Housatonic River to the Quabbin Reservoir to the Atlantic Ocean, water connects them all and plays an important role in the economy, culture and health of the Commonwealth's human and non-human residents. Up to 3 winners in each age category will each receive a cash prize of 100 $.
• Hometown Award (Boston, Massachusetts students only)
  • This award recognizes talented students in Bow Seat's hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. Eligible participants must demonstrate financial need. Up to 3 winners in each age division will each receive a $100 cash award.
• South Coast, Cape & Islands Award (Massachusetts students only)
  • Thanks to the generosity of the Island Foundation, which is committed to conserving the marine and coastal resources of southeastern Massachusetts, they will be offering two cash prizes of 100 $ in each age category to ocean awareness contest participants who reside on the south coast of Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket.
• Publishing, art exhibitions and special opportunities
  • As a winner, you may have a special opportunity to showcase your talents to the world while raising awareness of environmental issues in the wider community. Bow Seat organises art exhibitions, short-lived shows and social media campaigns; curates art and poetry anthologies; finds opportunities to publish student writing; and showcases all winning student work in the online gallery. As part of Bow Seat's student art collection, your creative work will help educate and inspire the public to take action!

Why take part?

• Gain knowledge about climate change and its relationship and impact on the changing world. Dive into Bow Seat's resource studio to find out more about the issues; find artists and organisations taking action to protect our blue planet; and discover how you can get involved.
• Develop your skills in communicationUse your artwork to raise awareness of critical environmental issues. Use your artwork to raise awareness of critical environmental issues.
• Build your portfolio and make art in your favourite medium, or practice a new one! Add a certificate of participation to your CV.
• Showcase your talents to the world. Through art exhibitions, publications, social media campaigns and scholarships, Bow Seat gives a voice to diverse young people to advance dialogue and participation in environmental conservation and advocacy.
• Join Bow Seat's global community of more than 30,000 young people who care about the ocean, environmental justice and climate action, and contribute to the world's largest collection of ocean art. environmental for young people in the world.

Who can take part?

• This is an international competition open to students aged 11 to 18 enrolled in secondary school (or the equivalent of home schooling) anywhere in the world. Proof of age, identity or eligibility may be required.
• Students who have started college or university are not eligible to enter the competition.
• Students aged 11 to 14 can enter the junior division. Students aged 15 to 18 can enter the senior division. Please indicate your age category when registering.
• The participants under the age of 13 must ask a parent or legal guardian to complete a parental/guardian consent form under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) with their submission
• Entries may be submitted by an individual or a group of unlimited size. If you are submitting as a group, there must be a group leader who will act as a contact person for the group.
  • All the names of the members of the group must be indicated in the submission.
  • All members of the group must meet the age eligibility criteria (11-18 years).
  • The prize money will be divided equally between the members of the group.
  • Submit in the age category of the group leader.
• A student may submit (i.e. enter his/her name in) only one entry per category. Consequently, a student may have a maximum of seven different submissions, one in each category.

For more information, please visit Bow Seat.