Submission Guidelines
The America 250 Student Art Challenge invites Nebraska teachers from any school and all PK-12 students, including homeschoolers, to submit original public art designs for exhibition online and as part of a traveling display. Submit original student designs for public art using any aspect of this toolkit.
Submission Opens: January 12, 2026
Submission Deadline: Wednesday, April 1
Have questions? Please reach out to NEartchallenge@gmail.com
Submission Topics
Who Can Participate?
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All Nebraska teachers and students, Pre-K through grade 12, are eligible.
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Teachers may submit up to five artworks created by their students.
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Homeschool students- may submit one artwork.
Submission Process
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Entries must be submitted online by April 1, 2026.
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Teachers submit artworks created by their students. Please submit each student design separately (maximum five student designs).
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Homeschool families submit individually (one per student).
What to Include
In addition to the digital photo of the public art design, each submission must include the following in a separate attached Word Document:
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Teacher’s name (or parent/guardian for homeschoolers)
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School name
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City
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Student’s first name
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Student’s grade level
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Student’s Artist statement. This includes 3–5 sentences about the student’s vision for their public art design. The statement should address why their design is important for the community and where they would like to have it located. They may also mention the materials, size, and any other important features of their design.
Digital Artwork Requirements
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Submit artwork as a high-resolution JPEG file sized between 2 MB and 10 MB. Other photo formats such as .HEIC are not accepted.
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Artwork image must have a clear background with nothing behind the design.
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Photos that are too small or low resolution to produce quality prints will not be considered for the printed traveling exhibition.
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Images suitable for printing generally require a resolution of about 300 PPI at intended print size.
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Artists should submit the best quality image possible within these constraints.
Display and Attribution
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Student first name, teacher name, school name, and city will be published alongside the artwork on the website and in exhibitions. Home-schooled students will have student’’s first name, ‘home-schooled’, and city published.
Permissions to Publish and Display
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By submitting, the teacher grants My Nebraska, Our America Art Challenge unrestricted permission to publish, publicly display, and reproduce the submitted works online, in print, and in exhibitions, with attribution.
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Printed images of artworks remain the property of My Nebraska, Our America Art Challenge.
Selection
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Eligible artwork will be displayed on the website.
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Selected artworks will be printed on boards and included in the traveling display. Information on the travelling display will be available on the [website].