We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Local community members were encouraged last week to support Carson Kelly as a finalist in the Reach Higher Montana Sticker Design Contest. With that intention in mind, several residents visited the Reach Higher Montana website to vote for Kelly’s sticker, an art piece entitled “Strive to Create.”
In speaking about the contest, Kelly explains what prompted him to enter: “At the beginning of March, I found out that Reach Higher Montana was hosting their annual design-a-sticker competition. To be honest, anytime anything in my life has the word ‘design’ in it, I jump at the opportunity! But the main reason I decided to enter the contest was to help our art program at CHS. In the competition, you can place from first to sixth with an additional three submissions chosen for the Judges’ Choice Award. Each of those nine winners receives $250 for their school art program in addition to scholarship money. A majority of art programs aren’t eligible for grants, which limits funds to foster an artistic drive in students. With the rising prices of today’s world, I wanted to help the art program I so deeply cherish. Also, who doesn’t want their design to be turned into a sticker? That’s pretty cool.”
Kelly went on to describe his inspiration for the sticker: “The nice folks at Reach Higher Montana requested that each design be Montana inspired while including the Reach Higher Montana color scheme. The mountains that surround Montana were my main inspiration, but my sister Amyerah was also a huge help during the designing process.”
The message Kelly hopes to convey with his “Strive to Create” sticker art is about the effort required in creativity versus that in the world of artificial intelligence (AI). “In a world filled with generative AI, I hope to encourage people to continue to create for themselves. I believe that AI can be used as a tool for certain activities; however, I also strongly stand on my belief that AI has no place in any creative endeavor. Art is the universal language that connects all people. It helps display the innermost depths of human emotion. In a way, the act of being human is itself a form of art. Never let anyone, or thing, take that away from you.”
Community support voting opened on April 10 and ended on April 17. Once at the site, people could vote for three of the 20 finalist designs.
Of that group, the top two designers will each receive a $1,500 scholarship while the third and fourth-place designers will each receive a $1,000 scholarship. Following that pattern, fifth and sixth-place designers will each receive $500 scholarships, and the Judges’ Choice will award three $500 scholarships. Furthermore, all nine winners will receive 100 stickers featuring their art.
Open to all Montana high school students in grades 9 - 12 who plan on attending an accredited institution after high school, the Design a Sticker, Win a Scholarship contest opened on March 1 and closed on March 31. Creators were directed to design a sticker “to inspire Montana high school students to find their path after high school.”
