2022 Kids Salmon Art Contest: the results are in

The Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF)’s second annual Kids Salmon Art Contest received more than 500 salmon-inspired art submissions from students across B.C. and the Yukon. The students produced art pieces celebrating the incredible journey of Pacific salmon and raised awareness for declining populations. The art entries were submitted from children aged four through 17 and bring hope to the future of salmon following the multitude of climate change and habitat loss challenges they’ve faced in recent years.

Pacific salmon undertake one of the greatest migrations in nature as the five species begin their lives in freshwater rivers and streams throughout B.C., migrate into the Salish Sea where they spend one to seven years in the open ocean, and then finally return to their natal stream to spawn and complete their life cycle.

Entries brought out an incredible range in creativity – from salmon-inspired digital art to 3-D sculptures to works influenced by Gyotaku, a centuries-old traditional Japanese art form that developed as a way for fishermen to keep a record of the fish they caught. We received submissions from far and wide, including the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Interior, and the Yukon.

“Seeing salmon through the creative eyes of young artists is such an inspiration and reminder of why we must do everything to help conserve salmon for generations to come. We are so grateful to every artist, parent, and teacher who took the time to celebrate salmon by entering PSF’s Kids Salmon Art Contest. The impressive artistic interpretations of salmon anatomy, life cycles, and challenges to their survival demonstrate the students’ profound awareness of salmon. Their passion and thoughtfulness about salmon is a promising indicator for the future of salmon stewardship,” says Michael Meneer, CEO and President, Pacific Salmon Foundation.

PSF looks forward to hosting the Kids Salmon Art Contest again in 2023. Below, we’ve featured the winning entries in each category. Winning entries from an individual will receive a prize pack worth up to $150 each.

Under 8 category winner: Everett, Age 7, Wells, B.C.

“Salmon are super cool. We hatch salmon eggs in our classroom and we release them in the spring. Fish are one of my favourite things in nature and salmon are my favourite fish. The little fry are so cute and they have great camouflage. My painting is called Salmon On The Run. It is a spawning salmon going back up the river to where it was born so it can lay eggs and we can have salmon forever.” – Everett

 

Age 8 – 10 category winner: Fiona, Age 10, Victoria

“My art is of a water colour salmon darting through bull kelp. I live close to beaches and enjoy seeing bull kelp, so I thought I’d include some.” – Fiona

 

Age 11 – 12 category winner: Katie, Age 11, Coquitlam

“My art of my salmon painting is to show the difference of how a real life salmon looks and how a first nations salmon looks like, I got inspiration from a story I read as a kid about, the northern lights and how they were created by flying salmon, my art is also about salmons going back to their birthplace to lay eggs. The salmon in the sky is meant to be good luck to the salmons swimming below, that they will reach their birthplace safely.” – Katie

 

Age 13+ category winner: Candy, Age 13, Coquitlam

“My artwork is about the life circle of salmon. I came up with this idea is because I want to show more about salmon on my work, so that’s is why I came up with this life circle thing. This shows how a salmon will grow up.” – Candy

 

Class Contest Winners:

Each of these classrooms will receive $1,000 towards salmon education or resources. Winners were selected by random draw from 138 class/school entries and individual entries who included their school name!

  1. St. Andrew’s School, Grade 2, Vancouver, B.C.
  2. AD Rundle Middle School, Integrated Art and Technology, Chilliwack, B.C.
  3. Mark R. Isfeld Secondary, Grade 8, Life Skills Class, Courtenay, B.C.

 

To see more great kids salmon art, check out this slideshow:

*note that if your submission was sent by mail or arrived in another format than the online form, the art may not have made it into our slideshow, but it was entered into the contest as a submission!