Vans Brand is calling all original and innovative high school students to join in the sixth annual Vans Custom Culture competition, a nationwide competition among high school art students.

High school art teachers can register their classes to compete with thousands of other students to see who can create the most artistic designs using blank Vans shoes as their canvas.

The top five finalists will get the opportunity to travel to New York City to showcase their creations. Celebrity judges will select an overall winner who will receive a $50,000 cash prize for their school’s art program. The winner will also get the chance to see their masterpiece for sale at Vans retail locations and online.

Vans will donate $4,000 to each of the four runner-up schools. An extra $50,000 will go to non-profit partner Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading organization for advancing the arts and art education.

The competition is intended to inspire high school students to embrace creativity through art and design and to raise awareness for the nation’s suffering art programs.

In its inaugural year in 2010, the competition had just 326 schools participate. This year, it is estimated that around 3,000 schools will participate. Vans hopes to see the competition continue to grow and afford high school students this wonderful opportunity.

The arts help encourage creativity and confidence, and boost problem-solving skills and fine-tune the ability to focus and persevere. This competition is the perfect way to engage and excite students around our country to follow their artistic dreams. I appreciate Vans and its dedication to helping art students and programs around the U.S.

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here.