Don’t mess with Texas® K-12 Art Contest

Below are a variety of resources to help you prepare for your Calendar Art Contest Application:

• New! Webinar - Entry Tips for Teachers (20:00)
• New!Teacher Checklist
• New!Social Media Kit
• Teacher-Parent Earth Day Sample Letter
• Teacher-Parent Permission Sample Letter
• Contest Flyer
• Litter Fact Sheet

Texas students enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth grade are invited to participate in the Texas Department of Transportation (“TxDOT”) and Keep Texas Beautiful (“KTB”) (collectively “Sponsors”) Don’t mess with Texas® K-12 Art Contest (“Contest”) to create artwork for the 2020 Don’t mess with Texas Calendar. Each entry will promote the Don’t mess with Texas and/or Keep Texas Beautiful litter prevention initiatives in order to encourage the protection of our Texas roadways and environment. The purpose of the Contest is to inspire our future leaders to refrain from littering, advocate for litter prevention, and keep Texas beautiful. 

Students who create the top 13 winning designs will have their artwork assigned to a month or featured on the cover of the 2020 Don’t mess with Texas calendar. Each will also win a framed winning artwork and a $100 Visa gift card donated by Keep Texas Beautiful. All student winners and their artwork may be showcased on the Don’t mess with Texas and Keep Texas Beautiful websites and social media sites, at the 2019 Keep Texas Beautiful annual conference, in media announcements and through other channels, as appropriate.

Teachers representing students who produce the top 13 designs will win a $100 H-E-B/Central Market gift card.

The contest begins January 14, 2019. All entries must be submitted or postmarked by April 18, 2019.

Winners will be announced in May 2019 and prizes will be distributed by May 31, 2019. Contest rules and dates may be changed at sponsors’ sole discretion.

CONTEST RULES
• Artwork must be submitted/postmarked on or before April 18, 2019. Late entries will be disqualified.
• Artwork must be original work created by a student enrolled in a Texas elementary, middle or high school, or who is homeschooled and living in Texas. Tracing is not allowed.
• Each student’s parent or legal guardian must fill out and execute the Contest Entry Form and Agreement.
• Only one piece of artwork will be accepted per student.
• The student’s name must be written only on the back of artwork. Names must not appear on the front of the artwork.
• Each piece of artwork must have a completed Contest Entry Form and Agreement, attached to the back with tape or a clear glue stick. Nothing else may be attached to the artwork—no exceptions. The student’s name must be written on the back of artwork; nothing except the entry form may be attached to the back. Artwork should not be folded or damaged. Entries that do not have the Contest Entry Form and Agreement attached will be disqualified.
• All submitted artwork becomes the property of Keep Texas Beautiful and the Texas Department of Transportation. Winners and runners-up (and their parents or guardians) agree to the use of their names/likenesses to promote the Don’t mess with Texas program in both print and digital media. Entries will not be returned. Keep Texas Beautiful will store student artwork for 3 months after the conclusion of the contest. See the Contest Entry Form and Agreement for further details.
• No obligation or liability is assumed by Texas Department of Transportation or Keep Texas Beautiful in connection with the contest.
• We may use your Personal Information to contact you with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email we send.

ELIGIBILITY
• Applicants must be current residents of Texas, must be students in grades K-12 as of April 2019, and must comply with these Official Rules. Children who are homeschooled and living in Texas are also eligible to participate. Employees and their immediate families (spouses, parents, siblings, children, and each of the respective spouses or people living in the same household of each) of TxDOT, KTB and GDC Marketing & Ideation are not eligible to participate.

DESIGN RULES
• All entries must illustrate a litter prevention message. The message must:

• Promote the Don’t mess with Texas and/or Keep Texas Beautiful mission; and
• Promote the protection of our highways and environment from litter.

• Entries may have a seasonal theme (spring, summer, fall, winter).
• Entries using words in the design must have all words spelled correctly. Teachers are encouraged to help students spell words correctly.
• Entries may illustrate the Don’t mess with Texas or Keep Texas Beautiful slogans or the iconic Don’t mess with Texas trashcan image. No other company logos, product brands, brand names, characters (i.e. Mickey Mouse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Barbie, etc.) or store names are allowed (i.e. McDonalds, Coke, H-E-B, 7-Eleven, etc.). Generic terms such as “restaurant” or “store” may be used.
• Design must not include any profanity.
• The student’s name must be written only on the back of artwork. If selected, the winner’s name will be
printed next to his or her design.
• Artwork must be submitted on an 8.5” x 11” piece of paper, in landscape format.
• Entries must not be framed or mounted.
• All artwork must be two-dimensional, using any of the following: watercolor, acrylic or oil paints, colored pencil, colored markers, ink, charcoal, pastels and crayons. Collages, computer-generated artwork, photography, traced images or photocopies will be disqualified.
• Each entrant agrees not to submit any entry that infringes upon any third party proprietary rights, intellectual property rights, industrial property rights, personal or moral rights or any other rights, including without limitation, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or confidentiality obligations or otherwise violates applicable U.S. law. Entries violating this section of the rules may be disqualified.

JUDGING
• Entries will be judged based on creativity/uniqueness, inclusion of a litter prevention message and interpretation of the Don’t mess with Texas and/or Keep Texas Beautiful mission, overall visual appeal, composition and appropriateness.
• All judgments are final.
• Entries will be judged by Keep Texas Beautiful affiliates, teacher volunteers and graphic design professionals.

PRIZES
Thirteen winners will be selected:
• One student winner’s artwork, chosen from the 13 winning designs, will be featured on the cover of the 2020 Don’t mess with Texas Calendar. He or she will also win a $100 Visa gift card donated by Keep Texas Beautiful.

• 12 of the top 13 winning students will have their artwork featured on a month in the 2019 Don’t mess with Texas Calendar, receive a $100 Visa gift card and have their winning artwork framed and returned. 

• Teachers representing students who produce the top 13 designs will each win a $100 H-E-B/Central Market gift card.

• Runners-up to the contest may be showcased in the 2020 Calendar or online. Runners-up will not receive a prize.

ARTWORK SUBMISSION
Participating teachers, coordinators or parents must submit students’ original designs (with Contest Entry Form and Agreement attached to the back of each) through the U.S. mail (not emailed) postmarked on or before April 18, 2019 to:

Keep Texas Beautiful
Don’t mess with Texas
K-12 Art Contest
8850 Business Park Drive, Suite 200
Austin, Texas 78759

More information can be found at DontMessWithTexas.org.