Annual Isla Art-A-Thon

The annual Isla Art-a-thon promotes the involvement of all students in the arts by encouraging them to create a work of art and to raise funds to support art programs in their schools. It is organized by the Isla Center for the Arts at the University of Guam and also helps to fund Isla's programming and exhibitions to which many students attend as fieldtrips.

Each year, the profits for the Art-a-thon are split evenly between the participating schools and Isla. Schools then receive 40% of all the money students raise -- money that can be spent on art supplies or other materials related to the arts. Forty percent goes to Isla's programming, and 20% is used to purchase the prizes earned by the students.

A multimedia computer will be given to:

1. The top Art-a-thon coordinator from the school that raises the most money;
2. The top Art-a-thon coordinator from the school that has the highest percentage of school participation in the Art-a-thon;
3. The teacher that raises the most money teaching an individual class or multiple classes.

Note: A coordinator may win only one computer, even if he or she qualifies in both of the above categories. This is so that we can spread the computers around. The computers are to be used in the classroom for the benefit of the students.

Art-a-thon packets that contain all the materials needed for the the pledge drive are sent out to the coordinators and teachers. Students have four weeks to collect pledges. For the artwork, each participating student needs to create at least one drawing or painting on paper, posterboard or illustration board that is no more than 12" by 18" in size. Students may not use only regular lead pencils.

The completed Art-a-thon materials (the envelopes containing the money that each student collected, their pledge cards, and the teacher report forms) must be submitted to the coordinator at the end of the pledge period so that they can tabulate and verify everything to be given to Isla. Late entries will be accepted, but prizes are not guaranteed.

All the data from the pledge cards and Teacher Report Forms will be entered into Isla's database, and prizes will be ordered from local and off-island vendors. Prizes will be ready for distribution in the spring. Prizes must be picked up by the school coordinators to be distributed to the students along with the art that was not selected for the spring exhibit.

Of the artwork that is submitted, a selection committee will identify the works to be included in the Art-a-thon Spring Exhibition. Each school will be represented by the same number of pieces (usually three). These works will be professionally matted and framed for the display that will be at the Isla Center for the Arts (House #15, Dean's Circle). At the end of the exhibit, the framed works will be returned to the students.

For more information, contact (671) 735-2965/6.