1.Review and Print Contest Rules and Forms

http://www.fws.gov/juniorduck/ArtContest.htm#GeneralInformation

Participate today!
Are you or your students interested in participating in the Junior Duck Stamp Contest?
If so, make sure you:

1.Review and print contest rules and forms.

**Please use the rules and forms found in the 2013 Federal Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program and Art Contest brochure. Please refer to the revised State Coordinators and Receiving Sites list or go to the list of state coordinators to find your state coordinator's contact information.**

Please note that national level scholarships have changed. See Awards below for details. (Please note, these are the current award levels, not those displayed in the art contest brochure)

2. Read the contest rules carefully and make sure you meet the requirements
3. Begin researching and preparing your entry
4. Fill in the entry form completely and affix it to the back of your entry
5. Mail your entry to your state coordinator by the deadline.

It's as simple as that!

Please also read the information below before getting started!

Submission Date
Submit your Junior Duck Stamp entry to a state contest by the state's deadline:

States and U.S. Territories: March 15, 2014

Except these states:
South Carolina: January 10
Arizona: March 1
Maine: March 1
Ohio: March 1

Remember to submit contest entries for your state or territory's Junior Duck Stamp competition to your state coordinator! Please direct all questions about your state contest to your state coordinator.
Help promote the program

Make copies of the Junior Duck Stamp Program materials to distribute at your school or local educational event and contact your state coordinator to see how you can help.

General Information
The Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest is the culmination of the Junior Duck Stamp educational program. After studying waterfowl anatomy and habitat, students may articulate their newfound knowledge by drawing, painting or sketching a picture of an eligible North American waterfowl species.
Students from around the United States submit drawings to their state, territory or district competition. Winners from these competitions, called the "Best of Show," are then submitted to the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest. One image from the 53 Best of Show entries will become the next Junior Duck Stamp.

Junior Duck Stamps are sold for $5 each by the U.S. Postal Service, Amplex Corporation, and various National Wildlife Refuges. Proceeds from the sale of Junior Duck Stamps are returned to states for environmental and conservation education programs.

Contest Eligibility - Who may participate?
K-12 students attending public, private, or home schools in the United States and the U.S. Territories are eligible to enter, as long as they are U.S. Citizens, resident aliens, or nationals. U.S. Citizens attending schools abroad may enter through their legal state of residence.

·  The student who won First Place in the National Junior Duck Stamp Contest during the preceding year may not submit an entry in the current year's contest.

·  One entry per student.

·  Supervising adults should encourage all students to participate in the Junior Duck Stamp program and enter the art contest. In the case of foreign exchange students, their artwork will be judged at the state level. however, if the artwork is awarded Best of Show, although it may be honored as a winner in that state, it may not be forwarded to the national competition.

Entry Requirements

·  The physical size of submitted artwork must be 9" x 12".

·  Entries must be less than ¼" thick.

·  Image layout must be horizontal.

·  Image must be a live portrayal of a native North American duck, swan or goose (refer to eligible species list).

·  Entries should not be matted.

·  There should be no border around the image.

·  A loose, detachable cover sheet may be laid over the art face to protect it during shipping. Spray chalk and pastel entries with a fixative to eliminate possible scuffing and smudging during transfer of artwork.

·  The entry may be multi-color, black and white, or a single color; it may be rendered in ink, paint, pastel, crayon, or pencil.

·  Techniques may include scratch-board, airbrush, linoleum printing, paper collage, dry brush, crosshatch, pointillism, etc. No photography or computer-generated art will be accepted.

·  No lettering, words, signatures or initials may appear on the front of the design. Inclusion of such markings will result in disqualification.

·  Design entries must be contestant's original, hand-drawn creation and may not be traced or copied from photographs or other artists' works.

·  Computers or other mechanical devices may not be used in creating artwork.

·  See the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program and Contest brochure for detailed contest rules.

Using References to Prepare Your Entry
Scenes should depict birds in their natural habitat; for example, sea ducks should be shown in ocean areas. Feather colors should be appropriate to the time of the year depicted by the environment. Decoratively designed birds are to receive equal voting consideration as realistic depictions as long as they are anatomically correct according to species depicted. Students should not reproduce other artists’ visual images for the purpose of presenting them as their own creative work.

Only work that is the unique creation of the individual student should be entered into the competition. Please do not submit work which has been copied from another source. Students may rely on images as guides when producing their artwork. However, the entry must be the student's own creation, and idea and reference materials may not be copied or traced or otherwise presented as the student's own work

Eligible Species
Restrictions on subject matter of entry:
Please submit an entry featuring one of the species listed below. Contact the state coordinator for questions regarding the permitted species list. Note: Mute swans are not permitted species.

Fulvous Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor)
Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis)
Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator)
Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus)
Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons)
Snow Goose, including blue phase (Chen caerulescens)
Ross's Goose (Chen rossii)
Emperor Goose (Chen canagica)
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
Brant (Branta bernicla)
Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)
American Wigeon (Anas americana)
Gadwall (Anas strepera)
Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Mottled Duck (Anas fulvigula)
American Black Duck (Anas rubripes)
Northern Pintail (Anas acuta)
Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors)
Cinnamon Teal (Anas cyanoptera)
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata)
Canvasback (Aythya valisineria)
Redhead (Aythya americana)
Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris)
Greater Scaup (Aytha marila)
Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)
Common Eider (Somateria mollissima)
King Eider (Somateria spectabilis)
Spectacled Eider (Somateria fisheri)
Steller's Eider (Polysticta stelleri)
Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus)
Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis)
Black Scoter (Melanitta nigra)
Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata)
White-winged Scoter (Melanitta fusca)
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)
Barrow's Goldeneye (Bucephala islandica)
Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula)
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)
Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator)
Common Merganser (Mergus merganser)
Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis)
Masked Duck (Oxyura dominica)
Nene (Branta sandvicensis)
Koloa (Anas wyvilliana)
Laysan Duck (Anas laysanensis)

Judging
All phases of the judging procedure are open to the general public. Entries will be judged on the basis of design, anatomical accuracy, artistic composition, and suitability for reproduction on a 1 1/2” by 1” stamp. Both realistic and imaginative interpretations are acceptable. Judging will continue until awards have been allocated for first, second and third place, plus honorable mentions. For each state, district, or territory, there will be 100 awards: 12 First Place, 12 Second Place, 12 Third Place and up to 64 Honorable Mentions. One student’s design will be selected from the 12 First Place winners as “Best of Show.” Notification of winners will be made as soon as possible. The state coordinator and/or member of the Duck Stamp Office staff will oversee all judging events.

Conservation Message
Each student is encouraged, but not required, to write a short conservation message that expresses the spirit of what they have learned through classroom discussions, research and planning for their Junior Duck Stamp Contest entries. Conservation messages should be limited to the space provided on the entry form. One message per state is judged at the national level. States submit either the Best of Show conservation message or the winner of the state conservation message contest. For more information regarding your state’s conservation message contest, please contact your state coordinator.

Awards
Recognition and prizes will vary from state to state; however, all entries will receive certificates of participation and winners will receive special recognition. In acknowledgment of the integral part teachers and parents play in education and the future of the youth of our nation, the national winner and one parent or guardian will receive a free trip to participate in the First Day of Sale ceremony in late June/early July.

The following scholarships will also be awarded:

National First Place: $1,000
National Second Place: $500
National Third Place: $200
Conservation Message First Place: $200

(Please note, the art contest brochure does not show the correct award levels; the above are the current award levels.)
Return of Entries: All entries will be returned to the students or schools. Non-winning entries will be returned by June 1. Winning stamp designs will be returned approximately one year after the state contest date. For questions regarding your artwork or to report a change of address, please contact your state, territory or district coordinator. If artwork is unclaimed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not be obligated to trace the location of the artist to return the artwork. All unclaimed entries may be destroyed one year from the date of the contest. Every effort will be made to safely return artwork to the students. In some areas, teachers will be notified to pick up the work at a central location.
Display of Duck Stamp Designs
Each state, district or territory Best of Show entry will be displayed at the Federal Duck Stamp Contest judging, waterfowl festivals, wildlife museums, and galleries throughout the United States. State programs may also choose to display the top winning artwork.

Click on your state for state coordinator information!

Mail entries to:
Stacey Hayden
Kentucky Coordinator
Federal Junior Duck Stamp Program
Clarks River NWR
91 US HWY 641 North
Benton, KY 42025

Phone: 270/527-5770

Email:

Kentucky JDS Program Facebook page