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About the Visual Arts Contest...

The annual Culture Shapers Visual Arts Contest enables student artists to compete for more than $85,000 in cash prizes in seven categories... drawing, painting, electronic media, mixed media, film, photography and sculpture. The contest takes place in the Fall, and is open to all High School Students in Harris, Waller, Liberty, Chambers, Galveston, Brazoria, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.

Students receive a commemorative t-shirt with their entry fee of $15. Entry forms are downloaded from the website and parents, students or teachers deliver the entries to the drop-off location.

Each year, the Culture Shapers Volunteer Staff receive about 1,500 entries! This year, jurying took place on three Sundays in January. The top ten finalists in each category are personally invited to the exclusive Awards Night, where the winners are finally announced!

About the Culture Shapers Jurying Process...

Culture Shapers jurors are a combination of educators and professionals, who come highly recommended to us by other notable organizations, such as the Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE), as well as others. Many of our jurors have experience both in and out of the classroom, which gives them a unique and valuable perspective on evaluating student artwork. Click here to read more about the Culture Shapers jurying process.

The Visual Arts Awards Ceremony

Click here for details about the Visual Arts Awards Ceremony!

About Young Voices of Houston...

In 2005, Culture Shapers expanded into the performing arts, with the Young Voices of Houston performing arts contest. Featuring ten to twelve of the top vocalists from area high schools, Young Voices provides these talented students the opportunity to perform vocal works for a live audience and compete for cash prizes! Young Voices of Houston competitions are held several times throughout the year. Click here to learn more about Young Voices of Houston!



From Lauren Laumbach, 4th Place in Painting

I just wanted to give a big thank you to everyone from Culture Shapers. Even though I was pretty much a complete nervous wreck the entire time, my experience at the awards ceremony Thursday night was awesome.

I liked that the video clips were placed in between the different categories; they were nice entertaining breaks that distracted me from my nerves. The story about Courtney was beautiful… she really seems like an amazing girl who definitely deserved the Heart in Art award.

It was really cool to see a little paragraph about me on the new blog entry on the ceremony. I didn’t expect the lack of vision in my right eye to be mentioned at all that night, and to see it on the website just made me appreciate the whole experience of this contest even more. It’s not just a win-or-lose competition… I know a lot of work goes into the contest, and it really shows. Winning money is definitely nice, but what made the night amazing was that Culture Shapers encourages and really makes the winning artists feel appreciated.

Thanks for an incredible experience,
Lauren Laumbach
4th Place, Painting
Senior, Kingwood HS
Humble ISD


More Info...



Made Possible By...

...generous donations from folks just like you, who are committed to preserving the arts for our high school students. THANK YOU for helping to keep the arts alive in our schools!