On 1 March 2021, The Rainbow’s Child DesignArt Olympics 2021 for secondary learners launched online, hosted and managed by arts-in-service-of-community PBO Requiem for the Living, in association with HOD of Art Ms Lené Lordan, of Roedean School, Parktown, Johannesburg.
Exciting prizes for winning entries have been donated by the MTNArt Foundation. These include digital devices, MTN packs and valuable artbooks for art teachers of the winning entrants.
DesignArt Olympics is an online, fantasy mask-making competition, which was devised in 2019, before Covid19 emerged as an international health threat and mask-wearing became obligatory worldwide.
The art competition has been derived from an eco-fantasy musical adventure called The Rainbow’s Child, which engages with several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including Climate action, Life on land, Life below water, Partnerships to achieve goals, Good health and wellbeing, and Sustainable cities and communities.
The Rainbow’s Child was devised and written by SA musician and educator, Dr Rexleigh Bunyard, who taught music at Roedean SA for 22 years, in addition to her freelancing work as a musical director and composer.
This competition engages with a multiplicity of arts (music, literature, ‘plastic’ arts) and ecological themes, the natural world (geography and science), the role of technology and business in resource management, and includes a renewed approached to recycling of materials in the creation of the masks. The educational criteria for research prior to mask creation will included ecological, cultural, and historical factors, use of materials, and photographic skills.
DesignArt Olympics will operate online only, from the website of The Rainbow’s Child, where members of the public will also be able to view the masks of the semi-finalists and vote for the most publicly appealing masks later this year. The competition will also be exposed on social media platforms.
The registration fee per entrant is R20. For this fee, each entrant will be able to enter the competition up to five times each – once in each of the five categories. These categories will focus on five selected fantasy characters of The Rainbow’s Child, as designated in the Brief & Rules on the website.
All secondary learners between 15 – 18 years of age are encouraged to enter this stimulating and enjoyable mask-making experience. All artists must be entered by an adult facilitator, as per the Brief & Rules available on the website.
The closing date to Register & Enter is 15 June 2021, and the closing date of the competition is 31 July 2021. Adjudication of the entries will take place in August and the winning entrants will receive their awards in September 2021.
