CYPRESS, Calif., Jan. 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vans invites high
school art students throughout the country to join in the eighth
annual Vans Custom Culture art competition to embrace youth
creativity and support arts education. Starting today, high school
art teachers can register their classes to compete for the grand
prize of $50,000 towards its art
program by creating their most artistic and inventive designs using
blank Vans shoes as their canvas.
The Vans Custom Culture competition is intended to inspire high
school students to express their creativity through art and design,
and to raise awareness for the country's diminishing arts
programs.
Vans Custom Culture has grown since its inception in 2010 from
just 326 schools participating in the first year, to an expected
3,000 schools representing all 50 states in 2017. In seven years,
Vans Custom Culture has empowered hundreds of thousands of U.S. art
students and has donated more than $745,000 to high school art programs and art
education.
"We're amazed at the talent we've seen in student submissions
through the years," said Kelly
Murnaghan, Senior Director of Consumer Marketing,
North America. "It's an honor to
have the Vans Custom Culture competition enter its eighth year, and
for us to be able to continue empowering originality and innovation
within youth culture."
Starting today and running through February 10 at 5p.m.
PT, high school art teachers can register their students for
the 2017 competition at the Vans Custom Culture website. Students
will be provided with four pairs of blank Vans shoes, which they
will reimagine to represent four themes of the Vans' "Off the Wall"
lifestyle: action sports, arts, music and local flavor.
Vans employees and an internal judging panel 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
26 - May 10, to help determine the top five schools. The top
five finalists will be awarded an all-expense paid trip to
Los Angeles to showcase their
designs at an event to a panel of celebrity judges. In partnership
with LCAD, Laguna College of Art +
Design, Americans for the Arts, Blick Art Materials and Journeys,
the overall winner will earn $50,000
and sponsored related prizes for additional funds towards their
school's arts program. The four runner-up schools will each be
rewarded $4,000 for their
participation.
This year, Vans Custom Culture will introduce a new component to
the competition – Customs. Schools will be given the additional
challenge of creating a design or pattern to match the theme,
'Technology in Design.' Even though Customs will be part of the
overall submission, it will be judged and prized separately from
the grand prize of $50,000. Vans will
award the winning school with $5,000
towards its art program and up to 25 pairs of shoes featuring the
newly designed custom print. The winner will be announced on
May 5 on the Vans Customs site.
For information and registration guidelines visit Vans Custom
Culture at vans.com/customculture and watch this Vans Custom
Culture teaser on YouTube.
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
170 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 such as the Vans Triple
Crown of Surfing®, the Vans Downtown
Showdown, the Vans Pool Party, the Vans Warped
Tour® and surfing's most prestigious contest, the
Vans U.S. Open of Surfing.
Vans, "Off the Wall" Since '66
www.vans.com
facebook.com/vans
twitter.com/vans_66
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SOURCE Vans