Applications are invited for the Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest 2025. The last date for registration is June 9, 2025!
About the Contest
The 14th annual Ocean Awareness Contest is a platform for young people to learn about environmental issues through art-making and creative communication, explore their relationship to a changing world, and become advocates for positive change. Students ages 11-18 from around the world are invited to participate.
The 2025 Ocean Awareness Contest – Connections to Nature: Looking Inside, Going Outside – encourages you to explore the natural world and your place in it. They invite you to think about your unique connection to nature and how being outside makes you feel. There are so many different ways that you can connect to nature, whether that’s exploring the history of the land you live on, volunteering in the fight against climate change, or taking a restorative walk in your local park. Go through the sub-themes and explore the topics that resonate with you. Share your relationship with the natural world through art, writing, performance, film, or multimedia. What is your connection to nature?
Eligibility Criteria
Students ages 11-18 from around the world are invited to participate in the Ocean Awareness Contest. Enter the division based on your age at the time of entry:
- Junior Division: Age 11-14.
- Senior Division: Age 15-18.
Sub-Themes
- Generational Knowledge
- Concrete Jungle
- Resilience
- Healthy Environments, Healthy Humans
Why Participate?
Why participate?
- Gain knowledge about climate change and its relationship to and impact on our changing world. Dive into Bow Seat’s Resource Studio to learn more about the issues; find artists and organizations taking action to protect our blue planet; and discover ways that you can get involved.
- Grow your skills in communication, critical thinking, creativity, and environmental advocacy. Use your artwork to raise awareness for critical environmental issues.
- Build your portfolio and make art in your preferred medium, or practice a new one! Add to your resume with a participation certificate.
- Showcase your talents worldwide. Through art exhibitions, publications, social media campaigns, and scholarships, Bow Seat uplifts diverse youth voices to advance dialogue and participation in environmental conservation and advocacy.
- Join Bow Seat’s global community of over 38,000 young people who care about the ocean, environmental justice, and climate action, and contribute to the largest youth environmental arts collection in the world.
- Be eligible for special opportunities, like the Future Blue Youth Council. Past program participants also serve as Bow Seat interns and Contest judges!
- Earn cash awards of up to $1,000!
How to Apply?
- Interested students can submit their entries via this link.
Submissions are accepted in:
- Visual Art: Handcrafted.
- Visual Art: Digital.
- Poetry & Spoken Word.
- Creative Writing.
- Film.
- Performing Arts: Music & Dance.
- Interactive & Multimedia.
Please review all submission requirements carefully.
Submission Deadline
The Contest deadline is June 9, 2025.
