Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Art of Space

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The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) will be holding their 18th Humans In Space Symposium in Houston, TX and this event will include a Youth Space Art Competition!

Children aged 10 to 17 all around the world are encourage to express their visions and ideas about the future of human space exploration, with written words, visual mediums, music or video media. I hope everyone will encourage their children to participate! The categories are wide-ranging, given that they may pen stories, write music, paint or draw images or even create films about what manned spaceflight means to them.

IAA Youth Space Art Contest
Why should we have humans explore other celestial bodies instead of robots? What does exploring space and off-world resources mean to humanity? What are their ideas of alien life, and… Stephen Hawking's doomsday scenarios notwithstanding, should we be trying to find it? Space travel may prove to be too difficult on the human body for long-duration travel – should we just content ourselves with Sci-Fi movies and fantasizing, or will our physical counter-measures and propulsion technologies ever measure up to our far-reaching dreams?

The next generation of space-faring folk should be pondering these concepts, and more, if we are to break through our current downturn in exploratory activities, and move to the next giant leap!

See the IAA website section on How to Enter, to read the full requirements, including artistic guidelines, submission formats, parental sponsorship and statements of originality.

Space Art
Artists' entries must be received by October 13, 2010 in order to participate in the competition. Winners will have their art displayed in an online gallery and will be invited to attend the Humans in Space Symposium personally.

Anyone can also forward the IAA official flyer, or pass it on at space-related events, so that folks have a printable announcement to post for display or hand distribute.

If you are over 25 years of age, and interested in applying to be a judge for this endeavour, also check out the Call For Judges section of the website; you'll get to weigh in on all the entries!