Lower Cape May Regional’s art students placed top 50 in Vans’ “Culture High School” contest thanks to the hard work of art teacher Carly Crisanti and her students.
LCMR students are asking locals to vote for their designs, which were inspired by local beaches, plastic pollution, and the declining horseshoe crab population.
Vote for LCMR’s design by visiting the Vans site linked here and clicking “vote now.”
Isabella Menzano, a senior at LCMR, said of the project: “I feel very strongly about taking care of our planet and our environment, so I loved the sustainability bonus challenge. I went to the beach and picked up trash and debris for us to use in our construction. We used these supplies to make our “Hometown Pride” shoes into a horseshoe crab.”
The Vans Custom Culture Competition is an annual competition for high schools across the nation. The Vans company sends shoes out to 250 high schools whose students will then design and decorate the shoes based on the two given themes. Participating schools compete for the chance to win $50,000 towards their school’s art program.
When submitting their design to Vans, the students had to write an impact statement alongside their art teacher that made a case for their vision and outlined a plan for the money, should they win. Here’s what they came up with:
Having participated in this competition for a few years, the “VANS thing” has become a topic that students–in and out of art class–will ask about. We’ve all been through a rough couple of years and this school year has seen us inching back toward normality.
After years of virtual learning and social distancing, it has been joyful to see our team collaborate in person this year. In fact, for the first time in our history of competing, we had the help and input of non-art students! Simply participating in this competition has positively impacted our school and community by bringing recognition to our art program.
In particular, after reaching the top 50 last year, we’ve found that students, staff and other community members ask about our art program more frequently. When presented with this year’s opportunity to participate in the bonus challenge, our team immediately had an idea that honors the challenge as well as our local environment.
Being from a shore town, keeping our beaches clean is a concept ingrained in our minds, so it’s no surprise that students decided to do a beach clean up. They used the natural materials found as well as trash that they removed from the beach to create our Hometown Pride shoes.
Not only did they sneak in a public service by incorporating a beach clean up, but they also decided to use this opportunity to represent a threatened species from our area: the atlantic horsheshoe crab.
It’s an animal that you may not know exists if you’re not from our hometown, yet one that is all too familiar to us. With our hometown pride shoes, we bring attention to this animal that has been subject to overfishing and environmental stressors.
Often, horsehoe crabs can be found dead on the sand after not being flipped over and unable to right themselves. With our hometown pride shoes, we remind everyone to take their trash with them, take care of our environment, and flip over any horseshoe crabs that find themselves upside down.
If we were to win the prize money, we would seek to utilize it in a way that would continue to promote our program in a positive way. We would like to purchase more supplies to make available to students.
Technology like printers, scanners, and ipads would allow for digital artwork, animation and graphic design. Screen printing,airbrushes and fabric paints would allow students to explore the connection between art and fashion–one that VANS knows well.
This competition has interested many students–and this year even compelled non-art students to get involved in the arts. Likewise, expanding our available resources and art-making methods would pique the interest of more students with diverse interests and backgrounds, giving them opportunity to express themselves, speak their minds, and champion for causes deep in their hearts.
Winning this competition and prize money would open up a world of possibilities to students who absolutely have perspective, passion, and the ability to change the world in ways large & small.
Voting will move onto the top 5 on May 9.
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