Art of Remembering: Student Art Contest Honoring Holocaust Survivors

The Art of Remembering: Student Art Contest* challenges students to explore the history and personal stories of the Holocaust and to consider how these stories connect to our lives today.

Open to students in grades 5-12 from Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska.

The Holocaust Center for Humanity's Art Contest is offered in memory of Jacob Friedman, a Holocaust survivor who recognized the incredible value of education. (Read more about Jacob Friedman below.)

Prizes are awarded in two categories:

Category 1 - Grades 5-8
Category 2 - Grades 9-12

First Prize: $200 | Second Prize: $100 | Third Prize: $50

Deadline for Entries: May 17, 2024

*Our Writing, Art, and Film Contest has evolved into our Art Contest! This means that we will now only be accepting handmade and computer-made art for the contest.

Navigate directly to a subtopic:

Prompt

Background:

Friedman2pics

It was 1944 and Henry Friedman was 15 years old. For 18 months, he had been hiding in the tiny cramped loft of a barn with his mother, brother and teacher, while the Nazis and their collaborators hunted every Jewish person. Finally, the Nazis fled, and it was safe for them to come out. Emaciated, starving, and having lost so much, Henry, along with his brother and parents were the only Jewish family from the city of Brody, Poland to survive the Holocaust.

Now, 80 years later, on the anniversary of Henry's liberation, Henry continues to tell his story of surviving the Holocaust, owing his survival to the remarkable actions of Julia Symchuk, a non-Jewish teenage girl and her family that risked their own lives to hide him.

Henry Friedman, whose story is one of many featured in our "Survivor Encyclopedia: Washington State", founded the Holocaust Center's art contest in honor of his father, Jacob, who instilled in Henry at a young age the importance of education. Through lessons of the Holocaust, we learn the importance of standing up for others, speaking out against hatred, and that each person can make a difference.

Photos: On left, Henry Friedman one year after liberation, 1945, Galicia, Poland. On right, Julia Symchuk reunited with Henry Friedman in Seattle, WA 1989.

Prompt:

Choose one or more of the Holocaust survivor profiles from the "Survivor Encyclopedia: Washington State." In the art form of your choice, convey one local survivor story, or a piece of that story, which inspires or stands out to you. In your artist's statement of 125 words or less, tell us why you chose the story, image, or scene that you did.

Please read the prompt and the rules carefully. Please see the rules for details on the sizes of items and types of items that we accept. Entries that do not follow the rules or that don't answer the prompt will not be judged.

Prizes & Categories

Entries will be judged in the following two groups with three prizes available for each.

Grades 5-8 Art

First Prize - $200 | Second Prize - $100 | Third Prize - $50

Grades 9-12 Art

First Prize - $200 | Second Prize - $100 | Third Prize - $50

Winning entries will be displayed at the Holocaust Center, at events, and in publications throughout the year. Winners will be announced in June 2024.

Rules & Requirements

All entrants must review the Official Rules.

Requirements for Artwork

Art pieces must not exceed 18”x24” in size and must be flat.
Artwork must be in an acceptable medium.*
- *Created by hand (drawing, painting, prints, film photography, multimedia)
- *Created using a computer (with a computer program or digital photography submitted as jpg, tiff, png, or other digital file formats).
For charcoal, chalk, and pastel artworks, please use fixatives.
We are unable to accept sculptures or any form of 3D art.
To qualify, all artwork must meet the prompt, including a clear reference to a Holocaust survivor featured in our "Survivor Encyclopedia: Washington State". Artworks that do not draw reference to a survivor will not be judged. Artworks that reference a survivor not featured in the Survivor Encyclopedia will not be judged.
Entries that do not follow requirements will be disqualified.

How will artwork be judged?

A panel of judges will review the entries. Judges are educators, artists, writers of various faiths and backgrounds. They will be looking for creativity, thoughtfulness, and an understanding of the prompt. Judges will be looking for you to relate your knowledge and studies of the Holocaust to your own personal life. Judges will also be looking for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, and artistic talent.

A thorough breakdown of our judging criteria can be viewed on the rubric for this year’s contest.

All artworks must meet the prompt, including a clear reference to a Holocaust survivor featured in our "Survivor Encyclopedia: Washington State". Artworks that do not draw reference to a survivor will be disqualified. Artworks that reference a survivor not featured in the Survivor Encyclopedia will be disqualified.

Are there special considerations that you want the judges to know? If so, please include this in your artist's statement.

More

Group and class projects are welcome. All students who participated in creating the work should be noted in entry form.
Entries will become the property of the Holocaust Center for Humanity.
The Holocaust Center reserves the right to publish and/or display all work.

How to Enter

UPLOAD YOUR ENTRY

Submit Entry

You will need:

Your art piece in a jpg, tiff, png, or pdf format (TIP: Make sure you get a good photo or scan of your artwork! Check the lighting and try to avoid shadows and reflections.)
Your artist statement (you will be asked to type, or copy and paste it into the online form)
The name of the survivor you focused on in your entry

MAIL OR DROP OFF YOUR ENTRY

You will need:

A printed copy of the ENTRY FORM, filled out and attach it to your art work.
Your artist's statement must be written legibly on the entry form or printed and attached to your art. Make sure it is clearly labeled with your name, email and/or phone.
Your art work must have your name, email, and phone number on it, seperate from the entry form and artist's statement. (in case the artwork gets separated from your entry form)
If dropping off, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call (206) 582-3000 to coordinate a time.
Address (for mail or dropping off):
- Holocaust Center for Humanity, Attn: Art Contest, 2045 2nd Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What are the judges looking for?

A panel of judges will review the entries using a rubric. Judges are educators, artists, writers of various faiths and backgrounds. They will be looking for artistic talent, creativity, thoughtfulness, and an understanding of the prompt. Judges will also be looking for proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation in your artist’s statement.

Click to see the rubric used for judging

Are there special considerations that you want the judges to know? If so, please include this in your artist's statement.

2. Can I reference a survivor story that isn’t local?

This year’s prompt requires students to use a local survivor story that is found in our "Survivor Encyclopedia: Washington State”. Submissions that don’t reference a survivor from this page or don’t reference any survivor will be disqualified for not following the prompt.

3. Do I need a bibliography? Do I need to tell you where I got photos, facts, quotes from?

If you are making an artistic representation of an existing photo or piece of art, be sure to cite it. Otherwise, based on this year’s prompt, the survivor story you chose should be coming from the "Survivor Encyclopedia: Washington State” and therefore, does not need to be specifically cited.

4. Do I have to write an artist's statement?

Yes. It should be 125 words or less. Please include the statement with your artwork when you submit your entry form either virtually or by mail. Entries submitted by mail/drop-off need to have their entry form, containing their artist’s statement, attached.

5. Is there a good short definition of the Holocaust?

The Holocaust refers to a specific event during the 20th century. It was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and destruction of European Jewish people by the Nazis and their collaborators (helpers) between 1933 and 1945. While Jews were the primary target of Nazi hatred, the Nazis also persecuted and murdered Roma and Sinti people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Poles, and people with disabilities. Six million Jews (two-thirds of the European Jewish population) and five million others were murdered in the Holocaust.

6. Who sponsors the contest?

The Holocaust Center for Humanity. The Holocaust Center is a non-profit organization located in Seattle. For more information about the Holocaust Center, visit our About Us page on our website.

7. Can a Holocaust survivor or speaker come to my classroom?

Yes. The Holocaust Center organizes a speakers bureau of Holocaust survivors and children of survivors. The first step is to read about it on our website and then complete the online form with a few possible dates that you would like the person to come. Speakers need approximately 60-90 minutes.

More about the Speakers Bureau

8. Do you have a list of suggested books and films on the Holocaust for students who want to learn
more?

Yes. Please see the annotated bibliographies for the Holocaust Center's teaching trunks. Choose the trunk at the appropriate grade level for a suggested list of books and films.

More about the Teaching Trunks

See Previous Winners

See the winners of the Holocaust Writing, Art & Film Contest 2023

See the winners of the Holocaust Writing, Art, & Film Contest 2022