The Environmental Education Collaborative, a nonprofit which seeks to advance environmental education in the Inland Empire, is holding a 2021 art contest with the themes of air and justice.
The 2021 Environmental Art Contest is for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students and adults. Applicants must address one or both themes in one of three areas: visual art, writing, or video, which can include spoken word performance and music.
Mary Borobia Walls, Vice Chair of the Environmental Education Collaborative, says the organization chose air and justice as this year’s themes because of those issues’ importance in the Inland Empire.
"Air quality in our region might be one of the most important environmental justice issues. Looking at especially the logistics in our region supplies so much pollution. I love exploring with teachers and students, the CalEnviroScreen map, and if you see the intersections of poor air with income, you're going to see that there are huge overlaps and those who are most in need are the most vulnerable,” Walls says.
Pam Johnson, Chair of the Environmental Education Collaborative, says wildfire smoke is another important aspect of the theme of air and justice.
“The fires that were so widespread with the Santa Ana conditions brought smoke. Like in my house, fine, fine smoke covered us for month from the Santa Ana winds. Which traditionally, that's the natural process, but it's just the fires have become so widespread that that has really impacted our air quality in particular,” Johnson says.
There’s a prize of $100 for the top winner in each contest and $50 for top submissions in each age and grade category.
The deadline to submit is Saturday, May 15.