National Portrait Gallery Announces Teen Portrait Competition Call for Entries Deadline Extended

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has opened a “call for entries” for its first annual Teen Portrait Competition. Artists between the ages of 13 and 17 may submit portraits to the juried competition in the medium of photography at npgteenportrait.org. The deadline for submissions has been extended through April 29. The two grand-prize photos will be printed and displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in 2013, and the grand-prize and 20 honorable-mention photos will be featured in an online exhibition.

Local teenagers designed the competition for their peers under the supervision of the museum’s education department. The teenagers, ages 13 to 17, worked on planning, creating and marketing the competition. Ella Hanson, a freshman in high school, worked with the management team and said she enjoyed “working in a team to make the best possible outcome and learning from others’ viewpoints.” The competition was designed to introduce teenagers to the concept of representing identity through portraiture.

“Our main goal for this project is that it be ‘for teens, by teens,’” said Rebecca Kasemeyer, director of education for the National Portrait Gallery. “We want the competition to be available to all teens.”

The theme for entries is identity. Entry applications will be submitted online, and the finalists will be chosen by the Teen Design Team. The jurors for this competition will include the Teen Design Team, a National Portrait Gallery curator and a professional photographer.

The competition accepts submissions of photographic portraits only, though digital editing is allowed. Two winners will be chosen: one in the 13- to 15-year-old category and one in the 16- to 17-year-old category. The two winning photos will be displayed in the museum in spring 2013, outside the Outwin Boochever Competition exhibition. Winners and honorable-mention photos will be featured on the Portrait Gallery’s blog at face2face.si.edu. Additional prizes will include a compact system camera for the two first-place winners and gift cards for 20 honorable mentions (10 in each age category).

More information about entering the competition is available at www.npgteenportrait.org. Additional questions can be sent to npgteenportrait@si.edu. 

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the history of America through the individuals who have shaped its culture. Through the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists whose lives tell the American story.

The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at Eighth and F streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Website: npg.si.edu. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000.

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