This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 23, 2013 - How do you mark a whopping 250 years? Music? Fireworks? Photo contest? Yes, yes and yes, when it comes to St. Louis’ 250th birthday celebration in 2014.
But don’t wait until next year or you’ll be late to the party. It starts now, with a photography contest sponsored by The Sheldon and St. Louis Beacon. First prize in three categories -- people, places and neighborhoods, and architecture -- is $500, with one grand prize of $1,000.
Participants may enter in one of three areas of expertise: youth (17 and under), amateur, and professional (anyone who makes their living in art or graphic design). The top 100 photographs will be featured in a Sheldon exhibit opening June 6, 2014.The contest, in cooperation with the organization stl250, focuses on picturing St. Louis and its diversity in the present. A companion exhibit, The Sheldon’s “Imagining the Founding of St. Louis,” opening Feb. 7, is a collection of mostly 19th- and early 20th-century paintings depicting St. Louis’ early days. It complements the contest/exhibition focused on St. Louis’ big birthday, according to Sheldon art galleries director Olivia Lahs-Gonzales.
“I thought it would be kind of nice to also do a grassroots project where we would invite people who live in the St. Louis region to document their city in 250 photographs,” Lahs-Gonzales said.
The details
The winning 250 photographs -- including those 100 to be displayed at The Sheldon -- will be part of an online slideshow, and another exhibit projected onto a wall, to be held at The Sheldon next summer.
To come out on top, creativity is crucial. Standard shots of the Arch or Busch Stadium won’t do. If you choose these landmarks as subjects, be sure to have a truly unique angle or contextual idea in mind.
“We’re looking for something less cliched,” Lahs-Gonzales said. “We want people to rediscover their city.”
What if you’ve already taken a great photo of St. Louis you’d like to submit? No problem. If it’s one year old or less, you can still enter it. Each photographer may upload only one entry for each of the three content categories, for a total of three entries per person.
If you don’t take first place, you can still be a winner. Second-place prizes are $250 and third-place, $100, in both the amateur and professional slots. Prizes in the youth category for first, second and third places are $100, $50 and $25, respectively.
You can upload entries until midnight, Feb. 23, 2014. Specific details about formats, sizes and uploading photos are available on the contest website. Note: this contest site is different from the image-sharing upload site on the STL250 website, and photos uploaded to STL250 will not be entered into the contest.
Create your own stl250 event
The photography contest is one example of stl250’s crowd-sourcing approach to planning a celebration calendar. And you don’t have to be as big as The Sheldon to have your event sanctioned by stl250, according to its executive director, Erin Budde. Even a small neighborhood gathering or project may qualify, by meeting a trio of criteria:
- It furthers stl250’s goals of commemoration
- It involves or benefits the community
- Organizers are able to document prior event-producing success
“Early on, stl250 realized we have so many great organizations,” Budde said. “And if we can encourage them to make one or more of their events about the celebration, then our calendar will reflect all the creativity and diversity in our community.”
After organizers register their event information, stl250 determines whether it meets the standards, and posts qualifiers in their calendar. All selected organizers may use the stl250 logo as well as its social media marketing tools. No financial assistance is available.
Events already on the stl250 calendar include the four signature gatherings that kick off with First Night, Dec. 31, 2013. Others range from the Missouri History Museum’s “250 in 250” collection of stories, images and objects to a School Sisters of Notre Dame Ice Cream Social.
Service projects will also be part of the events offered under the stl250 umbrella.
“Groups that work with youth may consider youth-oriented service projects, those working with veterans could create really special opportunities in community involvement that bring together their populations, neighborhoods might get together and plant a commemorative garden or do a cleanup,” Budde said.
