Germantown’s Writing + Arts Competition : Climate Adaptation
The Germantown Writing & Arts competition is back this year! In collaboration with GEDAC (Germantown’s Economic Development Advisory Committee), Germantown’s Climate Smart Communities Committee, and Germantown’s CSC — we are asking seniors (65+) and kids K-12th grades to submit artistic and written pieces relating to this year’s theme: climate change.
Submissions can look like:
Art - drawings, paintings, sculpture, photography, and other forms of visual art.
Writing - fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or graphic novel no more than 500 words in length. Songs or videos (filmed theater, animation, etc.) of less than 5 minutes.
We’re focusing on adaptation, and asking folks to think creatively about steps Germantown can take as a community in order to shape up to climate change. We want people to think about what’s meaningful to them in Germantown and what local and state governments, as well as individuals, can be doing to preserve the aspects of Germantown that we love so much. Our full prompt is included below.
Prompt:
Climate Change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. While these shifts have some natural causes, human activities since the 1800s have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels (like coal, oil, and gas) which produces heat-trapping gases. The frequency of weather-related disasters, so-called 100-year storms, higher average temperatures, sea-level rise, the melting of the glaciers, and loss of agricultural topsoil all can be traced back to gaseous emissions related to fossil fuels.
But all is not lost! Individuals, communities, cities, states, and even entire countries are putting their efforts towards finding innovative ways to adapt to our evolving reality and stem the tide. Climate Adaptation assumes that climate change is ongoing, and looks at ways to manage our changing world. It’s time to get creative and imagine ways that our community can work together on these adaptations. Every one of us needs to be conscious of the effect our daily lives have on the health of this beautiful Earth. As the saying goes, “there is no Planet B”.
Consider these questions:
How is Germantown at risk due to climate change?
In your mind’s eye, detriment to which aspects of our natural environment, i.e landscape, bodies of water, flora, fauna, etc. give you the greatest cause for concern?
How could Germantown adapt to climate change?
What kind of efforts could the people of Germantown undertake in response to climate change?
What should your governments, local, regional and national, be doing to help communities adapt to this rapidly progressing change?
Here are a few links that may inspire ideas around Climate Adaptation :
Future of the Hudson: Develop a Climate Resilience Vision
Resource List from Local Champions, Partners for Climate Action
Germantown's Local Waterfront Revitalization Study
Columbia County Natural Resources Inventory
How to Submit: Submissions will be accepted through April 8th (recently extended). Submissions should be sent to aroundgermantown@gmail.com with the subject line formatted as follows: “CATEGORY — AGE GROUP OF APPLICANT — FULL NAME” (ex. “Writing — Seniors — Biddle”).
All submissions must be attached to the email as a Word document or PDF, or be included in the body of the email as a link to a video on YouTube. For art submissions, the attachments can include multiple photographs from different angles. Arts submissions are also encouraged to include information on the medium and the scale of the piece (ex. “Watercolor, Name of piece, 8x12”) in the submission email.
Winners will be announced on April 22nd, Earth Day. Judges are going to be selected from our community’s vast pool of writers + artists. All submissions will be on display (location TBD) and we’ll have an unveiling during our Earth Day Celebration on Saturday, the 23rd.
Learn more HERE.
So far, solely through community donations we’ve amassed a prize money total over $2,000, which will be divided up to our various winners! We’re super excited to see what our Germantown Community comes up with.