Images of shuttles, rockets, flying cars, lunar landscapes, and a dog walking on the moon made up some of the entries for NASA’s 2011 Year of Innovation Art Contest.
NASA Langley Research Center’s Office of Communications invited Hampton Roads students ages 5 to 18 years old to use their talents, imagination and knowledge of NASA to create original artwork for a 2011 calendar called, “NASA: The Year of Innovation.”
NASA is actively researching and developing new concepts, materials and technologies to improve and change the world. The agency’s innovations have contributed to the development of inventions and technologies that improve everyday life on Earth.
A piece by Laura Curran, an 11th-grade student at Warwick High School in Newport News, which illustrates a bionic contact lens and its many functions such as focusing, taking digital photographs, zooming in and out and providing protection from ultraviolet rays, was chosen as the grand prize winner.
In all, 84 students were recognized Thursday, Jan. 27, at the Virginia Air & Space Center for placing in the art contest. There were 13 first-place winners, one per grade level. The winning artwork is featured in the calendar, with Curran’s grand prize artwork on the cover. First-place winners are also invited to attend AeroSpace Day, Feb. 2-3, in Richmond where their art will be on display in the General Assembly building.
“The Year of Innovation Art Contest is a way to emphasize how NASA encourages and inspires innovation and discovery to build a better world…full of new opportunities, technologies, and ways to understand and preserve our home planet, Earth,” said Lesa Roe, NASA Langley’s center director.
Student entries illustrated each artist’s interpretation of innovation in one of several themes, aeronautics, exploration, science, spinoffs and education. All of the artwork will be on digital display at the VASC.
To view the award-winning art, click on the video at: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/researchernews/rn_ArtContest2011.html
To learn more about NASA’s education programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education
