“The Future We Want” Youth Art Contest Official Rules

In order to enter this contest, participants and their parents/legal guardians must agree to these Official Rules. By entering this contest, participants agree to abide by these Official Rules.

Contest Sponsors

“The Future We Want” Youth Art Contest is sponsored by the U.S. State Department, the United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN).

Description of Contest Objectives

The theme for the United Nations 75th Anniversary is “The Future We Want, the United Nations We Need: Reaffirming our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism.” To celebrate this momentous occasion, we are launching a countrywide art contest for youth between the ages of 13-15. Participants will submit artwork that represents and depicts “The Future We Want.”

Platform(s)

Events from this contest may be announced and promoted on various social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but contest entry and administration will take place through e-mail. Contest winners may also be announced on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and our USUN website; however Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are not partners or sponsors of the contest. Contestants are reminded that by participating in the contest and uploading content to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, they are bound by Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter’s Terms of Service and any agreement with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter contained therein.

How to Enter

The contest commences on Monday, December 9, 2019. Entries may be submitted between Monday, December 9, 2019, and Sunday, January 26, 2020.

Fill out and submit applicant information via this applicant form
All artwork submitted must be created on standard 22”x 28” poster board and weigh no more than 2 lbs.
Contestants will photograph their work and email one photo to UN75@state.gov.
Finalists will be contacted and instructed to submit their original pieces to the U.S. Mission to the UN. We recommend that the submissions be easy to roll and transport as this will make shipping easier.
Once a photograph is submitted, it is considered a final submission and may not be modified, edited, or replaced.
Individual contestants may submit no more than one photo.
A submission must be an original photograph, digital or analog, taken by the contestant.
Participation in this contest is deemed as acceptance of these Official Contest Rules.

Content Requirements

Submissions must not contain obscenity, explicit sexual material, nudity, profanity, graphic violence, calls or incitement to violence, commercial solicitation or commercial promotion. Submissions must conform to local law and must not contain content or images that could be considered abusive, inflammatory, denigrating, or disrespectful to any of the Contest Sponsors, or to any groups, individuals or institutions. Submissions must adhere both in appearance and in fact to the norms of civil discourse. In other words, the content of all submissions must be suitable for a global, public audience.
Submissions must be original content created by the contestant and must not contain any elements that are protected by someone else’s copyright or otherwise subject to third-party intellectual property or proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights (except as expressly permitted below in (d)). Contest Sponsors recognize no allowance for “fair use” of copyrighted material, nor do Contest Sponsors recognize allowance for use of licensed materials created or owned by a third party.
Contest Sponsors reserve the right to disqualify, at their sole and absolute discretion, any submission that does not adhere to these criteria and to the intent and substance of these Official Contest Rules.
In the event of any question or difference of views regarding compliance with, interpretation, or application of these content requirements or other provisions of these Official Contest Rules, Contest Sponsors reserve the exclusive right to resolve such questions or differences of views at their sole discretion.
By submitting artwork to the contest, the contestant and a parent/legal guardian affirm that they have obtained written consent from all individuals whose image or likeness appears in the photograph, and that they have obtained the necessary rights, licenses, consents, and permissions to use all material such as music, images, text and other content in the submission. The contestant and a parent/legal guardian further affirm that they are prepared to provide reliable documentation of any and all such consents, licenses, etc., upon request. Failure to obtain such rights, license consents, and permissions may result in the disqualification of the photo submission at the Contest Sponsors’ sole and absolute discretion.

Technical Format Requirements

Photo submissions must be in JPEG format, maximum size of 10MB megabytes or smaller, but photo size must be no smaller than 1024×768 pixels (a smart phone photo will be sufficient).
Submissions should not have any visible watermarks, signatures, or personally identifiable information.
Retouching of Photos: The submitted photograph cannot be significantly retouched: nothing in the photograph (people, animals, scenery, objects, etc.) may be altered, removed, augmented or rearranged. Cropping is permitted, as is modest darkening or lightening of parts of the image.

Eligibility

Contestants must be between 13 and 15 years old on the date of entry into the contest. Parental or legal guardian consent is required. Contestants must be residents of the United States and must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
The individual submitting the entry will be considered the contestant and will be the only individual eligible to compete for the prize. Organizations are not eligible to compete for the prize, either as an entity or through representation by an individual. In order to be eligible for the prize, the contestant must provide complete and accurate information.
The following individuals are not eligible to participate in the contest: employees, interns, directors, and officers of the Contest Sponsors or the U.S. Government; or any employees, interns, directors, or officers of any agencies, companies or entities involved in the administration, advertising, judging, creation, development, execution, and/or fulfillment of this contest, and the immediate family members (defined as spouse, recognized partner, parent, child, sibling, and spouse or “step” of each) and those living in the same household of each such individual.
Once a submission has been accepted for entry into the contest, the contestant’s name (or User ID, if the contestant wishes to remain anonymous), age and state may be publicly identified at the sole discretion of the contestant.

Selection of Winners

All photos are subject to pre-screening by Contest Sponsors to ensure compliance with these Official Contest Rules. Any photos out of compliance will not be posted. Contest Sponsors reserve the right in their sole and absolute discretion to verify in the final analysis whether a potential finalist or potential winning photo submission has fully complied with these Official Contest Rules before posting to the contest site, awarding prize, recognizing a winner, etc.
Judges: The contest jury is comprised of U.S. Mission to the UN staff.
Judging Criteria: Artwork should explore the theme of UN@75, “The Future We Want, the United Nations We Need: Reaffirming our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism.”

Judges will award points for creativity, originality and based on how thoughtfully the artist incorporates the theme into their artwork. Points will also be given for geographic diversity.
All artwork should be submitted on a standard 22” x 28” poster board and weigh no more than 2lbs.
Contestants will photograph their work (maximum size: 10MB, minimum resolution: 300dpi) and email these photos to UN75@state.gov.
Finalists will be contacted and instructed to submit their original pieces through U.S. Postal Service to the USUN for judging and ultimately for display.

Winners: Each winner and/or finalist will be required to sign and return to Contest Sponsors a statement of eligibility and liability/publicity release, and provide a brief statement about the submission; otherwise the winner and/or finalist will be ineligible for any prize. Winners and finalists may choose to use an alias instead of their real name and may request other identifying information be kept private. Winner(s) will be contacted via e-mail at the e-mail address they provided for registration. The inability of Contest Sponsors to contact a potential winner may result in disqualification and/or selection of an alternate winner from among all remaining eligible submissions.

Prize

The selected group of nine finalists, including three winners, will be chosen by the USUN staff and the selected artwork will be displayed in the USUN lobby in New York City. The three winners will be individually recognized by U.S. Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft. Winning pieces may also be displayed in United Nations.
Winning photographs may be displayed on the USUN website, social media properties, and/or in the USUN itself.
Winners have to confirm the acceptance of the prize in an email reply within three calendar days. If the acceptance is not confirmed by the required date, the Contest Sponsors reserve the right to select an alternate winner. Each winner must provide a valid physical U.S. mailing address where the artwork will be returned to the winner. Contest Sponsors are not responsible for any problems related to the handling and/or shipping of any artwork, including, but not limited to, theft, delay, damage, or destruction/accidental loss by the shipping carrier.

Liability and Rights

Contest Sponsors do not endorse any submissions or messages expressed therein, and Contest Sponsors expressly disclaim any and all liability in connection with the submitted photos, including disputes between collaborators related to a submission.
The contest and its sponsors do not permit copyright-infringing activities or infringement of any other intellectual property rights, and Contest Sponsors reserve the right to remove and disqualify any submission they deem to be in violation of another party’s copyright or other intellectual property rights.
Contestants retain sole ownership of their original work. The submission remains the intellectual property of the contestant, and the Contest Sponsors and U.S. Government make no claim of copyright as to the work of any individual who enters the contest. Contestant specifically agrees to give the Contest Sponsors permission to use all content submitted for purposes of judging the contest. Finalists and/or winners will be required to grant Contest Sponsors, with proper attribution through whatever means they deem appropriate, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, and/or display the submission in any media formats and through any media channels in perpetuity in connection with the activities and operations of the contest.
Contestant assumes sole responsibility for the contest submission and the material contained in it, and for any consequences of submitting or posting it.
Contest Sponsors reserve the right at any time to verify the validity of entries and of contestants and to disqualify any contestant or entry deemed not in compliance with these Official Contest Rules. Contest Sponsors also reserve the right to request further documentation, at their sole and absolute discretion, to verify eligibility and compliance with these Official Contest Rules.
If the U.S. Ambassador to the UN is unavailable, Contest Sponsors, in their sole discretion, reserve the right to have another senior official at the USUN individually recognize the winners.
Contest Sponsors reserve the right, at any time and in their sole discretion, to disqualify and/or deem ineligible any individual who they reasonably believe (i) has violated the Official Contest Rules; (ii) has violated the terms of use of platform, or (iii) is acting in a bad faith, or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any other person.
Contest Sponsors reserve the right to modify, suspend, terminate, or cancel the contest at their discretion for any reason.
Contestant and his/her parent/legal guardian agree to indemnify and hold harmless Contest Sponsors, subsidiary and affiliated companies, officers, directors, employees, interns, and agents, from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debts, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees) arising from (i) violation of these Official Contest Rules; (ii) violation of any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, trademark, intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other proprietary right in connection with the contest; or (iii) any claim that a contest submission caused any harm, including financial, to any third party. These indemnifications and hold harmless obligations will survive indefinitely beyond the conclusion of the contest.
The conduct, judging, and awarding of prizes will be carried out in full compliance with applicable U.S. law and host country law. In the event of a conflict between U.S. law and host country law, U.S. law shall apply.
Contest Sponsors and the U.S. Government will take reasonable measures to protect privacy data, personally identifiable information, and other sensitive data of contestants. Contact information provided by contestants may be stored by USUN and may be used to contact contestants for other purposes in the future. This information may be shared with the co-sponsor of the contest and/or made available to third parties to the extent permitted by law.
Contest Sponsors assume no liability or responsibility for any loss or harm resulting from any user’s participation in or attempt to participate in the contest or ability or inability to upload, download, or otherwise access any information in connection with participating in the contest. Contest Sponsors assume no responsibility or liability for technical problems, or technical malfunctions arising in connection with the operation of the contest, including: hardware or software errors; faulty computer, telephone, cable, satellite, network, electronic, wireless or Internet connectivity, or other online communication problems; errors or limitations of any Internet service providers, servers, hosts or providers; garbled, jumbled or faulty data transmissions; failure of any email transmissions to be sent or received; lost, late, delayed or intercepted email transmissions; inaccessibility of the contest site in whole or in part for any reason; traffic congestion on the Internet or the contest site; unauthorized human or non-human intervention in the operation of the contest, including without limitation, unauthorized tampering, hacking, theft, virus, bugs, worms; or destruction of any aspect of the contest, or loss, miscount, misdirection, inaccessibility or unavailability of an email account used in connection with the contest.
Use of contest site is at user’s own risk. Contest Sponsors are not responsible for any personal injury, property damage, or losses of any kind which may be sustained to computer equipment resulting from participation in the contest, use of the contest site or the downloading of information from the contest site. By participating in the contest, the contestant and the parents/legal guardians release Contest Sponsors from any and all claims arising from or relating to such contestant’s participation in the contest, whether directly or indirectly.
Contest Sponsors are not liable in the event that any portion of the contest is cancelled or delayed due to weather, fire, strike, acts of war or terrorism, or any other reason.

In order to enter this contest, participants must agree to these Official Rules. By entering this contest, participants agree to abide by these Official Rules.