Collaborating for Biodiversity
Youth Art Opportunity 2024-2025
Black Footed Ferret, Collaborating for Wildlife and Plants, 2023, by 7th-12th grade students at Artventure OC Inc
Collaborating for Biodiversity
is open for submissions
Wednesday, January 22nd
-April 23rd 2025
What is this project about?
Collaborating for Biodiversity is a K-12 youth art project celebrating species protected by the Endangered Species Act. You are invited to submit artworks created in collaboration with two or more youth artists. We’ve created Collaborating for Biodiversity in honor of the 20th Anniversary of Endangered Species Day, Friday, May 16th, 2025.
Please see below for dates, deadlines, eligibility, guidelines, and eligible species. We can’t wait to see the collaborative artwork you create!
January 22nd, 2025 Collaborating for Biodiversity Call to Artist submission platform opens
April 23rd, 2025 Call to Artist submission platform closes to entries
May 16th, 2025 Endangered Species Day 20th Anniversary
May 2025 (date TBD) All eligible images submitted to Collaborating for Biodiversity will be shown in a presentation at a meeting with members of congress in honor of Endangered Species Day 2025
-Participants must be K-12th grade students, residing in the United States or United States Territories
-Artworks must be collaboratively created by two or more K-12 grade youth artists
-Submitted images will be reviewed for adherence to Collaborating for Biodiversity. Endangered Species Coalition reserves the right to exclude artworks that are not aligned with Collaborating for Biodiversity themes or works that are in any way inappropriate or discriminatory.
– All eligible works will be included in a Flickr gallery celebrating the 20th Anniversary.
-Please submit high quality images of artwork(scan or photograph) including the artwork only. Avoid including distracting backgrounds which detract from artwork (i.e. a hand holding the art, the room behind the artwork, the frame/mat around the work, etc.) Please do not include people in your images of the artwork. Please orient the image in the direction the artwork should be viewed (i.e. upright, not upside down or at a 90 degree angle, etc.) The images cannot be reoriented by ESC staff and will appear in the gallery in the orientation submitted. For large artworks, such as murals, consider using the panoramic setting on a phone camera to capture an image of the work.
– Please note: ESC cannot accept physical artworks – online submissions only.
-Students’ artwork must be original. It is critical that submitted artwork not be direct copies of images found on the internet, in print media, or elsewhere. To avoid copyright infringement, works thought to be copied or traced will be disqualified.
-No lettering, words, signatures or any other markings may appear on the front of the artwork. Please do not label the depicted species or write/sign the names of the artists. Lettering that is creatively incorporated into the art (such as a sign with text) is permitted.
-All submitted artwork becomes the property of the Endangered Species Coalition. Submission of the artwork grants the Endangered Species Coalition a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to publish your student’s/child’s artwork in Endangered Species Coalition’s editorial, educational, and promotional print and digital materials, in our promotional and educational posts to social media, and for all other lawful uses—including artwork print sales—in furtherance of the Coalition’s mission. All published artwork will be credited with the artist names.
Eligible species can be found on these pages:
LISTED species living or migrating within the United States and U.S. territories, or within the territorial waters of the U.S.:
https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/species-listings-by-tax-group-totals
DELISTED species living or migrating within the United States and U.S. territories, or within the territorial waters of the U.S.:
https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/species-delisted
PROPOSED FOR LISTING species living or migrating within the United States and U.S. territories, or within the territorial waters of the U.S.:
Collaborating for Biodiversity was inspired by the amazing artworks created collaboratively for the 2023 Collaborating for Wildlife and Plants call to youth artists, in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act.
Virtual Art Workshops coming in February!
Workshops with Artist Kenia LaMarr and Li-Ting Hung
Monday, February 10th 3:00pm PT/4:00 pm MT/5:00 pm CT/6:00 pm ESC is offering a free, virtual art lesson by artist and community art activist Kenia LaMarr. We’re looking forward to her lesson, on the theme of collaborative youth art and the Monarch butterfly. Full workshop description coming soon!
To attend Kenia LaMarr’s workshop, please register here
Date TBD Workshop with artist and arts educator Li-Ting Hung – more information and registration link coming soon
What is Biodiversity?
The Word Biodiversity combines:
Bio: ‘way of life’ or ‘life giving’ with Diversity: Variation in plant and animal life, especially as represented by the number of species *
*definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary
Biodiversity provides enormous benefits, from supporting human physical and mental health and protecting food security, to mitigating climate change and ensuring that a range of habitats for recreation and appreciation of the natural world are protected and respected. It’s never been more important for people and communities to collaborate to ensure that our shared future is biodiverse. Creative processes and making works of art can be impactful, meaningful opportunities for young people to learn about and represent biodiverse wildlife, plants, and places.
LEARN More about Collaborative Artworks
Collaboration is an act of cooperation, an effort to work toward shared understanding and the satisfaction of realizing projects together. By working collaboratively, we are united with others seeking to show our collective care for the well-being of our native wildlife and plants, in unity with our human communities. Collaboration thrives with the knowledge that by working together we can build new structures that embrace multiple perspectives and tap into collective wisdom.
Here are some possible collaborative opportunities:
-Pairing students from different grades, for example 2nd and 5th grades, 8th and 12th grades, etc.
-Students can collaborate with other youth such as siblings and friends outside of the classroom to create work
-One student can create the habitat where the species lives and a second student can create the species living in the habitat, emphasizing one or more ESA listed species.
-Students partner to research Envirnmental Justice issues related to recovering imperiled wildlife and show the story of local community projects benefiting wildlife and plants
There are many kinds of collaborative media possibilities. Here is a list of just a few of the possible collaborative projects you can do:
-Collage in 2D or low relief media
-Murals created by groups with chalk, paint, or other materials
-Land based artworks using natural materials
–Found object 2D and 3D works
-Collaborative digital artworks
-Books, zines or comics
-Additive sculptural works created by a whole class
-Additive paintings or drawings with contributions from multiple artists
-Ecosystem drawing (or other 2D or 3D Media) where multiple students collaborate to depict an ecosystem and the species living there.
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