In lieu of Kids Ocean Day in 2021, Coastkeeper and other participating organizations hosted a virtual art competition to maintain the event’s spirit while staying cautious of the pandemic.
This year, we continued to host the virtual art contest for those schools that could not participate in the in-person event but still wanted their students to engage in the curriculum and practice ways in which art and conservation can intersect to send a message out to our communities.
Students could submit artwork in many forms – painting, drawing, sculptures, written word, digital art, etc. Students were also asked to describe what inspired their project and how they would like their project to inspire others.
Here are the top 3 winners of 2022’s Kids Ocean Day Art Contest:
“I got inspired when all the trash was picked up and I realized that the ocean was probably full of different trash, And I hope my project inspires people by raising awareness that if they ever go scuba diving that they should look for trash and pick it up.” –Kayli, 4th grade student from Garden Grove
“I used to make the same half and half drawing when I was younger but with a flower, so that gave me inspiration to make this in an ocean form. I want this to inspire others because it shows how much pollution goes into the ocean and how big the change is.” –Chloe, 4th grade student from Garden Grove
“The thing that had inspired me was that when you guys talked about how to fishes would die it made me think of making the fishes say/show to not put trash in the ocean and how I would like my artwork to inspire other is that I want to show that the fishes and other marine animals in the ocean wouldn’t like the fact that there’s trash in their home.” –Amy, 4th grade student from Garden Grove
