South Dakota Governor’s Student Art Competition

Coordinated by the South Dakota Arts Council

GOVERNOR NOEM OPENS SUBMISSIONS FOR STUDENT ART COMPETITION

PIERRE – In celebration of National Arts in Education Week, Sept. 9-13, 2024, Governor Noem and the South Dakota Arts Council announce the opening of the Governor’s Student Art Competition.

All South Dakota students in kindergarten through 12th grade are invited to participate in this competition. Selected student work from each age division will be exhibited in the State Capitol in Pierre from January through September 2025.

The divisions are organized as grades K-2, grades 3-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12.

The submission deadline is Nov. 4. Submissions open Tuesday, Sept. 10.

View the full press release online [linked here]

Program Details

Students whose work is selected for the 2025 exhibition will be notified by Nov, 14 2024. Official announcement of the competition results will be made in early January 2025.
Welcome, and thank you for your interest in the South Dakota Governor’s Student Art Competition! We’re excited to host this annual competition for student artists across our state! Please be sure to review all guidelines and eligibility requirements before submitting student artwork.


If you have any questions regarding the competition, please email rebecca.cruse@state.sd.us or call the South Dakota Arts Council offices at 605.773.5084.

Submission Deadline
Monday, Nov. 4, 2025


Submission Requirements
Two items will need to be included as attachments to each submission. Please be sure to download the submission form before completing it,  or else your work will not be saved. Include the submission form and high-resolution jpg image in the SAME email. Each submission will need to be sent separately. One entry per student. No limitations on the number of entries per school/organization

  • Student Submission Form [linked here]
  • 1 high-resolution (at least 300 ppi) image of the artwork being submitted for the competition

If selected for exhibition, students will also need to submit the Artwork Authorization Release Form. This is not required as part of the submission.

  • Students whose artwork is selected for the exhibition must submit the Artwork Release Form [linked here], completed by a legal guardian, unless the student is over 18.

Eligibility
All K-12 students in South Dakota are encouraged to participate in the Governor’s Student Art Competition. We ask that an art teacher, classroom teacher, home-school teacher, or guardian submit the artwork on behalf of students and respond to any additional requests for information we may have about the submission.

Competition Details
The competition is juried by a panel of professional South Dakota artists, and the top-ranked student artworks in each division will be selected for exhibition in the South Dakota State Capitol in 2025. We ask students to consider selling their artwork to the state at the end of the exhibition. However, if a student does not want to submit their artwork for purchase, it will be returned to them after the exhibition ends in September 2025. Competition divisions are determined by grade:

  • Kindergarten-2nd grades
  • 3rd-5th grades
  • 6th-8th grades
  • 9th-12th grades

Submission Instructions
Students will need to prepare the following information in order to submit their artwork:

  • In order to complete the Online Submission Form, you’ll need to know your Legislative district. If you don’t know, you can look it up [linked here].
  • You will need to measure your artwork and fill in the dimensions in the online form. Artwork must be NO LARGER THAN 36x48 inches.
  • We’ll also need to know the artwork medium (this is what you used to create your art) and the purchase price if you would like to offer your work for sale to the State of South Dakota. If your work is Not For Sale (NFS), please indicate this in the form.
  • Write an Artist Statement. Your Artist Statement should be about 3-5 sentences long and help us understand why you make the art you do. If you need help developing your Artist Statement, please review our guide. [linked here]
  • Write a description of your artwork. Your description should include an explanation of the imagery and the title of the piece if it has one. If the orientation of the artwork is not immediately clear, please make sure to include information about that, so we don’t accidentally hang it upside down! Include more details if you’d like.
  • Take a GREAT photo of your artwork! This contest is judged based on the photos of the artwork submitted, so please make sure you have the best photograph possible before you send it to us. The best thing to do is scan the artwork if possible. But if working with a camera, make sure there is nothing in the background and that the piece is centered in the photo frame rather than at an angle. Placing the artwork on a plain black or white background is the best option. And, please be sure your image is uploaded in high resolution! We need images to be at least 300 pixels per inch.
  • If your work is among the top three in your division, it will be part of the Governor’s Student Art Exhibition. In that case, you will need to have the Release Form completed by your grownups if you are younger than 18. Students who are 18 or older do not need guardian signature.

Competition Rules
Submissions must be received by midnight on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024.
Artwork must be able to be matted and framed in a manner that will not protrude more than 4 inches from a wall; 3-dimensional artwork is accepted if it can be framed in this manner. Each artwork can be no larger than 36 inches by 48 inches, and 4 inches deep.
Accepted mediums for the two-dimensional artwork are as follows:

  • Paintings: oil, acrylics, watercolor, etc.
  • Drawings: colored pencil, pencil, ink, marker, pastels, charcoal (It is recommended that
  • charcoal and pastel drawings be fixed.)
  • Collages: must be two dimensional
  • Prints: lithographs, silkscreen, block prints
  • Mixed Media: use of more than two mediums such as pencil, ink, watercolor, etc.
  • Computer-generated art
  • Photographs

Each entry must be original in concept, design, and execution and may not violate U.S. copyright laws. Any entry that has been copied from an existing photo or image (including a painting, graphic, or advertisement) that was created by someone other than the student is a violation of the competition rules and will not be accepted. For more information on copyright laws, we recommend you visit the Scholastic website [linked here]. Work entered must be in the original medium (that is, not a scanned reproduction of a painting or drawing).

If your artwork is selected as the winning piece, it must be shipped to Pierre and arrive by Nov. 25, 2024. Artwork will hang in the South Dakota State Capitol for the duration of the exhibition. Students should only submit artwork they will not need for other purposes.

Students whose work is selected for the exhibition will need to return the Artwork Release Form [linked here], completed by legal guardian, by Dec. 2, 2024. Forms will be emailed through a signing platform, or it can be downloaded and completed.
Entries that don’t follow all of the above rules may not be accepted.