By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A competition to reward creativity in arts is offering to give winners cash prizes in United States Dollars and the contest is the BIC Art Master Africa 2019.organised by the leading global stationery brand, BIC.
The competition aims to foster local creativity and wants African talents to create artwork using the BIC® Ball Pen as their medium. The event has held in South Africa in 2017 and 2018.
Following the success of the campaign in South Africa, the brand decided to expand the competition to include all African countries, giving those on the continent the opportunity to submit up to three pieces of art on the competition’s site, bicartmaster.com until October 31, for a chance to be titled BIC Art Master Africa champion.
A panel of experts including Ghanaian artist and sculptor, Enam Bosokah; professor and designer, Hein Liebenberg; renowned artists and interior designer, Valerie Manouvrier; professional curator and art advisor, Herve Mikaeloff; and avid art enthusiast and collector and member of BIC’s founding family, Geoffroy Bich, selected some entries based on some criteria and in the whole month of November, members of the public were allowed to vote for their favourite artwork.
In December, two major winners would be announced as the ‘BIC Art Master Africa 2019’ winner and a ‘People’s Choice 2019’ prize winner.
The winner will receive a $1,000 cash prize, a personalized digital gallery space, and a chance to be featured as part of BIC’s art collection, La BIC Collection. The ‘People’s Choice’ prize winner will be selected based on the highest number of votes received by the public and will be granted a cash prize of $500 as well as a BIC Artistry Kit.
Commenting on the competition, Yemi, Ojo, Country Business Development Manager revealed that BIC was originally founded on one hero product, BIC’s Cristal® ballpoint pen, that served as an essential tool for people everywhere.
“As we expanded our range of ballpoint pens, we saw consumers around the world redefine how they used our signature blue ink. BIC Art Master was born from our connection with art and creativity with the objective to create a platform that recognizes local talent around Africa,” he said.
The organisers further said apart from the artists, BIC Art Master Africa 2019 will also recognize consumers who engage with the competition by selecting one ‘Lucky Voter’ of those that voted on the competition’s website and one ‘Lucky Influencer’ winner, of those that posted about the competition on social platforms using the #BICArtMaster hashtag. Both winners will be selected at random and will receive a prize worth $250 each.
Adedapo Adesanya