A fantastic way to inspire a love of cartography at an early age, have you heard of the Barbara Petchenik Children’s Map Competition 2017? Barbara was a leading cartographer whose work related to children. In her memory, the International Cartographic Association holds a biennial competition.
Cartography will always be as much an art as it is as science. Modern maps are often driven by technology, but the overriding goal of a map is to enlighten someone. There is no better way to achieve this than making use of the power of visual expression.
We invite you all to give your children this opportunity to express their ideas about maps and about their wider understanding of the world in which they live.
Children of all ages are asked to visually represent (draw, colour or paint) the theme ‘We love maps’.
The best artwork for each age category has the chance of not only winning a map-related prize but also being put on show at a 5-day event in Washington DC. The likes of UNICEF may also consider the designs for greetings cards and so on.
Main rules
The four age categories are under 6, 6 to 8, 9 to 12, and over 12 years old.
Entries tend to be individual but can be groups of up to 3 children, e.g. to allow siblings to work together.
We recommend good quality paper, but any flat material less than 5mm thick can be used up to a maximum paper size of A3.
Please attach a label to the back of the entry stating a title for the piece as well as the child’s name, age, address (school or personal) and country (in our case UK). Also, enclose a completed copy of the parents’ permission slip.
Entries should be sent, to arrive no later than 3rd April 2017, to: David Forrest, School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ
We have tried to make the rules as concise and easy-to-understand as possible. If you wish to consult the full list of rules including international judging, then please click here.
We hope as many children as possible get the chance to enter and to think about maps. Share this with your children’s school and encourage them to enter this fantastic mappy competition.
Good luck!