CYPRESS, Calif., Jan. 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Vans kicks off
the seventh annual Vans Custom Culture competition, a national
contest designed to give high school students a platform to embrace
creative expression while joining a movement to support arts
education. Starting today, high school art teachers can register
their school to compete against thousands of other students,
creating custom designs using blank Vans shoes as their canvas.
The winning submission will receive a $50,000 donation from Vans to help foster the
school's #RightToArt movement, along with the potential that the
school will see one of its designs produced for sale at select Vans
retail locations and Vans.com.
Vans has been a longtime supporter of the arts as arts education
has been proven to lead to improved scholastic performance in high
school, elevate college attendance with heightened GPA's, and
increase ability to hold a job1 later in
life. The importance of arts education is proven; however, funding
for the arts has been cut in more than 80 percent of U.S. schools
since 20082.
Vans Custom Culture was founded with the goal of raising
awareness of diminishing arts education budgets across the country
and the program has grown rapidly since 2010 with only 325 schools
participating in the inaugural year. During the 2015 competition
nearly 3,000 schools stood alongside Vans to support arts education
for all and even more are expected to appeal for their #RightToArt
in 2016.
"An arts education inspires creative expression and helps
prepare students for what's next, which is why Vans believes that
today's youth and future generations deserve the Right to Art,"
said Sarah Crockett, vice president of global consumer
marketing, Vans. "In the last six years, Vans Custom Culture has
inspired hundreds of thousands of U.S. art students to take a stand
for arts education and Vans has donated over $500,000 to
support arts education."
Starting today and running through February
12 at 5 p.m. PT, high school art teachers can register
their students for the 2016 competition at the Vans Custom
Culture website: Vans.com/CustomCulture. Students will be
provided four pairs of blank Vans shoes and will be challenged to
create designs that represent the four themes of the Vans "Off The
Wall" lifestyle: action sports, arts, music and local
flavor.
An internal judging panel, including Vans employees, will assist
in selecting the top 50 schools to be featured as semi-finalists.
Those 50 schools will then be posted online for a public vote on
the Vans Custom Culture website from April 27 – May 11, determining the top five schools. The top
five finalists will get the opportunity to travel to Los
Angeles to showcase their designs at an event to a panel of
noted judges, with the overall winner earning $50,000 to
help foster their school's local #RightToArt movement.
In addition, Vans will donate $4,000 each to the four
runner-up schools, plus an extra $50,000 to non-profit
partner, Americans for the Arts, the nation's leading organization
for advancing the arts and art education. Vans is proud to support
the organization as they continue to elevate arts education in the
U.S. As part of the Vans Custom Culture program, Vans and Americans
for the Arts recently awarded a total of $20,000 in grants to eight schools to fund local
arts initiatives. Each school will receive $2,500 to bring to life a desired arts based
program during the 2016 school year; winning schools include East
Chapel Hill High School, LAUSD USC and East Los Angeles High
School.
For information and registration guidelines visit Vans Custom
Culture at Vans.com/CustomCulture. Follow the movement
on Instagram @vans.custom.culture and by using the hashtags
#RightToArt and #VansCustomCulture.
About Vans
Vans®, a VF
Corporation (NYSE: VFC) brand, is the original action sports
footwear, apparel and accessories brand. Vans authentic
collections are sold globally in more than 75 countries through a
network of subsidiaries, distributors and international offices.
Vans also owns and operates more than 450 retail locations
around the world. The Vans brand promotes the action sports
lifestyle, youth culture and creative self-expression through the
support of athletes, musicians and artists and through progressive
events and platforms such as the Vans Triple Crown of
Surfing®, the Vans U.S. Open of Surfing,
Vans Pool Party, Vans Custom Culture, Vans
Warped Tour®, and Vans' cultural hub and
international music venue, the House of Vans.
Vans, "Off The Wall" Since '66
www.vans.com
facebook.com/vans
twitter.com/vans_66
instagram.com/vans.custom.culture
1 DoSomething.org; 2014.
2 US News & World Report; 2014.
Vans: Laura Doherty, (714)
889-3114, Laura_Doherty@vfc.com
Edelman: Parinaz Farzin,
(323) 202-1892, parinaz.farzin@edelman.com
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SOURCE Vans