Artists wanted: You could be a part of art history
by Beth
If you read the post I wrote last month about how Easter Seals got its name, you know how important those little stickers we send out every year are to us. From that post:
When we started in 1919, we were called the National Society for Crippled Children. But then, eighty years ago, in the spring of 1934, we launched our first Easter “seals” campaign to raise money for our services. The seals were stickers about the same size as postage stamps, and donors placed them on envelopes and letters to show their support
Easter Seals has been using decorative stamps to raise money and create awareness of our programs ever since, and by 1967 the Easter “seal” was so well recognized that we formally adopted the name.
Over the years, the stamps have transformed into our logo—the lily—and now we’re looking for six beautiful original pieces of lily artwork to use on next year’s Easter seals stamps. Visual artists are encouraged to send us their original art depicting lilies, and we will choose six pieces from all the ones submitted to use on our stamps in 2015. Our entry form gives specific details about size and vertical orientation requirements, but here are some general guidelines:
- Your artwork may include one or multiple lilies. However, please be sure to focus only on the lily/lilies, do not include a vase or anything else that will take away from the flowers.
- You may include as many pieces of art as you would like to submit, but you need to include an entry form and artist release form with each piece.
- If your artwork is chosen, the year and “Easter Seals” will be added to it at the printing stage.
- The majority of the entries are signed by the artist, but it’s completely up to you to sign your artwork or not.
- If your artwork is not chosen as one of the final six pieces of art, your artwork will be returned to you.
- We do not accept photography for the Art Contest.
- Entry forms, artist release forms and original artwork must be received by August 14 to be considered.
- Winners will be notified via email or phone by Friday, October 31, 2014.
Nearly 10 million American households will receive our seals in Spring 2015, so submitting art for our Lily contest gives artists a chance to gain national exposure for their creative talents—not to mention help Easter Seals to raise funds to provide programs and services for people with disabilities. For more information about the Easter Seals Art Contest, please call Lisa Hallen, assistant director of direct marketing, at 312.551.7134, or by email at: artcontest@easterseals.com.