U.S. Department of State Partners with Walt Disney World on International Art Contest to Celebrate Earth Day 2007

The Department of State will hold an awards ceremony with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and other senior officials on Thursday, April 26 to announce the winners of its 2007 Earth Day International Art Contest.

To highlight U.S. engagement and leadership on environmental issues, the Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Science planned and sponsored an international art competition for children around the world from 10-15 years old, based on the theme, "What is important to you about our environment?"

The Department established three age categories – 10-11, 12-13, and 14-15 – and asked U.S. Embassies abroad to select a national winner in each category. Thousands of children participated from 40 countries across the globe. Those Embassies submitted more than 100 national winning works of art to the Department.

A panel of judges at the Department selected the grand prize winner in each age category. These grand prize winners are flying to Washington with their mothers to participate in the awards ceremony.

The three winners are:

Mariya Nikolova, 15 years old, from Kazanluk, Bulgaria

Soo-Yun Ga, 12 years old, from Seoul, South Korea

Anna Kutuzava, 11 years old, from Minsk, Belarus

Mariya Nikolova has attended an advanced-mathematics high school since 2005. Mariya has also taken painting lessons for 10 years. She attends the Galya Ivanova’s School of Painting in the Ivan Rilski Child Centre in her hometown.

Soo-Yun Ga’s art talent was discovered at an early age. She attends art school in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Anna Kutuzava is a 5th-year pupil of Polotsk Gymnasia ¹ 1. She has been drawing in a school art studio as an extracurricular activity since she began her formal education. She is fond of drawing wildlife and has a pet cat.

The three art contest winners will be joined at Thursday’s event by Mickey Mouse, who will travel from Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida to present the contest winners with gifts from Disney and to participate in the State Department’s annual Take Your Child to Work Day.

Also welcoming the three winners to the awards ceremony will be the Ambassador from the Republic of Korea, His Excellency Lee Tae-sik; the Ambassador from the Republic of Belarus, His Excellency Mikhail Khvostov; and the First Secretary for Political and Cultural Affairs from the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria, Dr. Dimitar Mihaylov, along with children from each embassy..

The grand prize winners, in addition to their trip to Washington, D.C., will be flown to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where they will be VIP guests for three nights at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The children will participate in a series of educational conservation activities at the Animal Kingdom and other parks at Walt Disney World.

The United States continues to lead the world in addressing many important international environmental issues, such as climate change, clean energy, natural resource conservation, air and water pollution, ocean protection, fisheries conservation, and infectious disease prevention.

The art contest and ceremony, taking place in conjunction with the State Department’s annual Take Your Child to Work Day program, presents an opportunity to share this message with nearly 500 children of State Department employees, the visiting embassy children, and the many countries that participated. It will show tomorrow’s environmental stewards that just as art has no language barriers, the environment has no borders.