A call is going out to all Rowan County middle and high school students to participate in a local art contest.

Youth Substance Use Prevention Rowan (YSUP), in collaboration with the Center for Prevention Services and Rowan County Public Health, is sponsoring its second annual Substance Use Prevention Art Contest with submissions being accepted through February.

This year’s theme is “Creative Expressions: Path to Prevention, and, as noted in a release, “centers on raising awareness and promoting prevention against substance use, including alcohol, vaping, tobacco and marijuana.”

Last year, the contest focused on vaping and tobacco cessation, but this year they decided to open it up to all substances overall, said Kristen Estepp, YSUP Rowan project director. 

Additional changes in this year’s contest include opening it up to both middle and high schoolers in the county, and more types of media which can be submitted from the young artists.

While it was just certain art forms like drawing last year, Estepp said, it has expanded this year, as she said artists can express themselves through their chosen art form, whether it’s drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, digital art, poetry or any other medium.

“If you can create it and it’s yours and it conveys the theme of any substance use prevention, we’ll take it,” she said.

Substance use prevention is a broad topic, Estepp said, and the artwork submitted can range from work showing, for example, peer pressure and how it makes one feel about it or health effects substances have on one’s body or how substances are bad for you and one’s feelings about it, perhaps using poetry to express those feelings.

“We really just wanted to leave it open up to interpretation,” she said, “and that’s why we included the many different art forms.”

The release said that “students are encouraged to create original artwork that reflects their interpretation of the theme and the importance of substance use prevention.”

Contest participants must register on the YSUP Rowan website, YSUPRowan.org/ArtContest, and they can submit their artwork via email or by dropping it off at the YSUP Rowan Office, 1322 S. Fulton St., Salisbury. The submission deadline for art pieces is Feb. 28.

To determine winners, members of the coalition, community partners and the Youth Empowerment Team will cast their vote. Prizes will be awarded to winners in various categories.

Estepp said there would be different categories including RSS students and then private school, homeschool and others as deemed necessary.

Winning artwork will be printed on banners, posters, stickers which will be handed out by students at events and window clings, Estepp said. 

Last year, she said, every high school received two banners with the student’s artwork on them. One was placed on the football field “especially just for visibility purposes,” she said, “and the other one they could choose where they could put it for student outreach.”

The contest was already underway before Estepp started working at YSUP last year and she wasn’t involved at the beginning of the contest. She was there, she added, to assist in the setting up for the showcase at Waterworks Visual Art Center, which included a reception for the students to come in, along with their teachers and see their artwork on display.

The work will be showcased again this year, she said; however, details for this are still in the works.

“We are excited to see the creativity and passion that students will bring into this contest,” said Estepp. “Art is a powerful tool for communication and advocacy, and we hope this contest will inspire youth to think critically about substance use and make positive choices.”

For more information or for any questions, contact her at kristen@rowanysb.org.