Over 60 winners in the St. Maarten Regatta Art Competition
by St. Maarten Regatta 13 Feb 2018 13:14 GMT
1-4 March 2018
St. Maarten Regatta Art Competition © St. Maarten Regatta
On Sunday February 11th, the prize giving ceremony of the 19th annual St. Maarten Regatta Art Competition was held. Over 60 winners gathered at the Sint Maarten Yacht Club for the ceremony. The judges were astonished by all the talented artworks and were able to hand out a lot of prizes thanks to the many sponsors.
With five different age groups, the contest was open for all children between 4-18 years old. Over the past two months students worked hard on creating the most wonderful art pieces. They could choose from three assignments per age group ranging from making paper plate marine animals to designing a trophy.
With over 400 entered artworks, it wasn't easy for the judges to make their decisions. This year's panel consisted of Menelik and Claudio Arnell, Jimmy Lucero and Pierre Villedieu. Menelik Arnell explains "We had such a hard time picking out the winners with so many amazing art pieces. What made it so difficult and what impressed us so much were the different techniques and details used by the artists."
There was also a special group assignment this year. Students could sign up for this assignment with their whole class or with a group. The goal of the assignment was to display the St. Maarten Regatta on an 8x4ft plywood board donated by Kooyman BV. The winning group from the ArtCraftCafe got a sail in to the sunset cruise for 20 people on the new boat of Random Wind. Together with other winning artworks, the boards will be displayed at the Marketplace during the St. Maarten Regatta.
During the prize giving ceremony, the judges awarded the winners with fantastic prizes provided by Rainforest Adventures, Random Wind, Tri Sport, Nature Foundation, Scuba Shop, Intertoys, Carousel, Ocean Explorer, Sea Fun Sxm, Learn 2 paddle, Shipwreck, Funtopia, Van Dorp, the Butterfly Farm, Kooyman BV and Domino's. Fiji Water made sure that no one got thirsty and after the ceremony the children could get their faces painted by the crew of Funtopia.
Maxim van den Pol, organizer of the Event concludes: "There are so many talented and creative children here on the island, it was really awesome to see so many students participating in the competition. I've seen the most amazing artworks and was really impressed by the craftsmanship of some of the artists. I would really like to express a big thank you to all the sponsors. We could not have done this without their help. It was incredible to see the support from the local businesses after everything that happened here on the island."