"Imagination is what drives great innovation, design and engineering," said Seiji Ichii, President and Chief Executive Officer, Toyota Canada Inc. "Today's young people are the future titans of the auto industry and we want to drive the dreams of tomorrow's leaders."
This is the first time Canadians are eligible to participate in this annual contest and includes competitors from more than 70 countries and regions. Last year's contest attracted 600,000 entries worldwide, with winning entries from Thailand and Romania. The goal of the contest is to inspire children's creativity and reinforce the importance of having a dream, in addition to encouraging their interest in cars.
The contest is open to the parents/legal guardians of children ages 15 and under and there are three age categories: nine years old and under, 10-12 years old and 13-15 years old. Submissions will be accepted from February 8 through March 22, 2013.
The contest consists of two phases:
· Local Contest (phase 1) which will select one winner and two runners up in each age category, for a total of nine prizes of a 7" 8GB Tablet device (with Wi-Fi). In addition, the prize-winning pieces are submitted as Canada's entrants to the World Contest.
· World Contest (phase 2) will award prizes to 10 global entries from each age category. If a Canadian submission is a winner in the World Contest, the winner (and their child) will receive an opportunity to visit Japan on a trip to attend the award ceremony in August 2013.
Submissions in the Local Contest will be reviewed by a panel of judges including Sheri Radford, author of Penelope, the popular children's stories; Christine Tripp, illustrator of more than 50 children's books; and a representative from TCI. Judges will consider the overall originality, creativity and relevance to the theme in each piece.
The submissions can be created with any medium of art such as paint, markers or crayons but must not be created digitally. In addition, the artwork needs to be created on tabloid (A3) size paper (11 x 17 inches) and must feature a coloured background. The contest is open to residents of Canada outside of Quebec. Full entry terms and conditions can be found at: http://www.toyota.ca/dreamcarartcontest