The Off-Grid Living Festival, held in gold-rush era Victorian town Chiltern, is calling on all ‘future thinkers’ from regional Victorian schools to be a part of a competition where art meets science.
The challenge invites young artists to explore themes of sustainable innovation through art, allowing students to blend their creativity and STEAM skills into unique 2D drawings.
Students are invited to create an eco-invention or formulate a positive future vision in their minds, and then manifest that creation into a 2D representation.
Twenty artworks are to be selected as finalists and will be displayed to a crowd of thousands at the event.
The 2D artworks will be judged by a panel of three and winners are to be announced during the Off-Grid Living Festival which will be held on Sunday, April 13 at the Chiltern Racecourse and Recreation Reserve.
Festival director Kate Nottingham said the competition is “all about little people with big ideas.”
“We want them thinking about a positive, sustainable future.”
The Future Thinkers Competition draws on the values of the Off-Grid Living Festival.
Ms Nottingham said the festival is one of the biggest sustainability events in Australia and around 10,000 people are usually expected to attend over the weekend it is held on.
The festival is set to be host to over 300 exhibits with 10 focus areas throughout.
It has aims to enable and empower people to take their energy needs into their own hands and transition to a more sustainable lifestyle.
The Future Thinkers competition is open to primary school students within about a 180km radius of Chiltern; however, Ms Nottingham said that any young artist who is able to attend the festival with their family are invited to submit a piece.
The Pedal Power competition is also open for students in regional Victoria, wherein high schoolers will be able to form teams to create pedal-powered machines.
For more information on the festival and competitions, head to www.offgridevent.com.au