16th Annual Treasures of the Texas Coast Children’s Art Contest
View the 2012 Art Contest Winners
A sea turtle curiously approaches as mysterious hands pull a soda can and a six-pack ring from the surf. Colorful fish circle a tableau of trash left by beachgoers as a horseshoe crab scoots past, oblivious. Look closer and words appear on bracelets adorning the disembodied wrists, and the message is clear: Trashing Texas Beaches Isn’t Cool.
That’s the scene - selected from 4,088 entries - that won 11-year-old Clayton Graves a grand prize in the 2012 Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Children’s Art Contest. Clayton, a fifth-grader at J.P. Starks Elementary School, will have his artwork featured on the cover of the 2013 Adopt-A-Beach Children’s Art Contest Calendar.
“Clayton’s artwork captures the elbow-grease environmentalism behind the Adopt-A-Beach program’s success,” said Jerry Patterson, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office. "When it comes down to it, Adopt-A-Beach is about picking up someone else’s trash because the fish and the sea turtles and other creatures that live on the coast can’t.”
Clayton’s artwork wins him two round-trip, coach-class tickets from United Airlines to any United destination in the 48 contiguous United States, one 7-night Caribbean cruise from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines departing out of Galveston, Miami, or Ft. Lauderdale, and a class party at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in New Braunfels. Clayton’s art teacher, Peter Sebastian, also receives two round-trip, coach-class tickets from United Airlines and one 7-night Caribbean cruise courtesy of Royal Caribbean Cruises.
A total of 39 other students from across Texas also earned honors for artwork depicting their love for the Texas coast. All finalists in the Adopt-A-Beach Children’s Art Contest will receive a ticket to the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi, two all-day passes to Schlitterbahn Waterpark in New Braunfels, two tickets to the permanent exhibit hall at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, a certificate of recognition, prizes from the Texas General Land Office and a calendar displaying the winning artwork.
Contest judges picked 10 winners in each of the four categories: kindergarten, first-grade and second-grade, third-grade and fourth-grade, and fifth-grade and sixth-grade. Clayton’s grand prize entry was selected from the list of finalists.
The annual contest is organized through the Texas General Land Office’s Adopt-A-Beach program. The contest began in 1996 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Adopt-A-Beach program. The annual competition encourages Texas students to learn more about the Texas coast and express what they have learned in their art. This year’s contest sponsors are Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, United Airlines, Schlitterbahn Waterparks, the Texas State Aquarium and the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
The artwork of all 40 finalists will be on display in the State Capitol’s South Central Gallery from 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22 until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 29. A special thank you goes to Representative Larry Taylor for sponsoring the exhibit.
Statewide 2012 Art Contest Sponsors
