Competition Projects Page

Welcome to SkyDay’s Environmental Art Competition! This is an opportunity for you to dialogue with your peers worldwide through art. Your group will create an on-line art exhibition about your ideas and feelings about climate and environment. Your art gallery is located at skydayproject.org. Ask your teacher for your gallery’s name. Each member of the group should do ONE of the following four projects (although you can do more than one if you wish). Only groups that attempt all four projects will be considered for our prizes. DEADLINE: You have until midnight CST on November 30, 2022 to complete your work and post it to your gallery. Posting work is easy but you should definitely review each project’s posting guidelines BEFORE posting.

Project 1: Curator

Each group needs ONE curator. The curator will:

  • Talk to your group about the work and what it all means and post to your gallery a one page curator’s statement to help audiences understand your exhibition

  • Post to your gallery a paragraph describing what your group would do with any prize money you might receive and why.

  • Remind your ‘Witness to dynamic change’ teammates to post sky photos everyday and remind the whole group to post their poems and environmental art by November 30, 2022

  • (Optional) Attend a zoom call with curators from other groups hosted by artist and SkyDay director Ben Whitehouse. This will be coordinated with your teacher.

  • (Optional) Organize an exhibition of the work in your community and document it.

Ben and students discuss the role of curator in this 2 minute video

Project 2:
Call and Response

Earthrise Photo Credit; NASA

Earthrise Photo Credit; NASA

On December 24th, 1968 just a few minutes before 10.30 AM Houston time, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders were circling the moon in Apollo 8 when suddenly they became the first humans ever to witness the Earth rising above the moon's craggy surface. In a rush of excitement they loaded a camera with film and took the amazing photograph named “Earthrise.”

In 2018, Youth Poet Laureate of the United States Amanda Gorman responded with her own Earthrise. Hear Ms. Gorman recite her poem here: youtube video. Read her poem here: Ms. Gorman’s Earthrise poem

Note: Did you know that NASA is planning to return to the moon and this time not just to visit but to live and work? Read about it here: National Geographic: How NASA’s Artemis program plans to return astronauts to the moon

What to do:

  1. Listen to/read Ms. Gorman’s poem.

  2. How does her poem impact you? How does it make you feel?

  3. Respond with a poem of your own.

  4. Read our Guidelines for Posting Poems page to prepare your poem for posting.

  5. Post your poem to your gallery by the November 30 deadline

Students ask Ben questions about the poem writing and presentation

Project 3:
Witness to Dynamic Change

Our sky is a constantly evolving experience of light and atmospherics. What is your relationship to it?

Witness to Dynamic Change presents two challenges:

  1. Artist as Witness. What is it like for you as an artist, as an individual, to witness the evolution of the natural resource above our heads? What do you notice? How does the experience impact you?

  2. Atmospheric Composition. How can you compose compelling sky images that exclude objects and rely solely on value, hue and atmospherics? This is the one constraint on this project - make sure your photos are ‘SKY ONLY’ by cropping out anything connected to the ground such as trees, buildings, horizons, cables, mountains people, poles etc.

What to do:

  1. Take at least one picture of the sky everyday from now until November 30 and post it to your gallery, always making sure your photo is ‘SKY ONLY’.

  2. Review our Guidelines for Posting Sky Photos page so you know how to post.

  3. How does the experience of this daily practice impact you? What do you notice? What are you curious about? Share your observations with your group.

Project 4:
Make Environmental Art

The Tate Gallery (London) says: “Environmental art is art that addresses social and political issues relating to the natural and urban environment.“

What to do:

  1. Research environmental art. There are some great articles about this. Here’s one: Can Art Help Save the Planet? (NY Times)

  2. Which environmental artist(s) do you admire? Why?

  3. Create an environmental artwork of your own.

  4. Review our How to Post Your Artwork page and post it to your gallery.

  5. Share your work with the group. Tip: Try asking the group what they make of it before you offer explanations. This will help you understand what your work is communicating when you aren’t present to guide their experience. Then you will know if they are receiving your intent. But then go ahead and help them understand what you have done and why.