This Is Art! Ireland’s all-island youth art competition returns with the 2024 theme "This Is Imagination!" Over €10,000 in prizes for education and art-related vouchers are up for grabs. Unleash your creativity and let your imagination run wild!
Your brief is to respond to the theme “This Is Imagination!” by showing us what fuels your creativity. Whether it's a dream, fantasy, story, unusual idea, or unique perspective, demonstrate what ignites your imagination. As a painter, sculptor, photographer, or digital artist, transform that initial spark of imagination into a fully realised work of art!
Download The Brief
The theme for this year is “This is Imagination!”. We encourage you to think about the theme and respond to it in any way you like. We want you to explore your creativity and express your unique perspective through your artwork. Whatever way you can use your imagination to spark your creativity, we're eager to see how you bring the theme to life through your art. Get imaginative and show us what this theme means to you!
This year's competition is open to young people, aged 18 years of age or younger of all abilities and backgrounds living in any of the 32 counties on the island of Ireland.
All original artwork is eligible for submission, as long as it has not been created using templates, colour-by-numbers, Artificial Intelligence generation tools, or other similar techniques. Avoid creating artwork of real people who you haven't recieved their explicit permission to create and avoid making anything that resembles an existing IP. (Characters, superheros, popstars) We encourage young artists to experiment with different mediums and formats, and to express their creativity in their own unique way. So whether you prefer to work with pencils, paint, pixels, paper or plastic or anything in between, we welcome your submissions and can't wait to see the amazing artwork you create!
A prize fund of more that €10,000 will be awarded across the different categories for materials, further education and art-related vouchers.
You may submit as many different artworks as you like but you’ll need to upload a separate entry form for each entry.
"Ready to show off your artistic skills and enter the competition? Here's what to do:
Create your one-of-a-kind masterpiece
Snap or Scan a high-resolution digital image of your work using a scanner, smart phone or digital camera
Upload your images along with your completed entry form to rte.ie/thisisart/submit and upload your images"
All entries must be submitted online via THIS IS ART! website by the closing date, midnight Sunday 3rd November 2024. This date is final. If your entry is received after this date it will not be submitted to the competition. Allow plenty of time to upload your entry.
The judging process will take place after the closing date, during the month of November 2024. Our judging panel will select the category winners and commendations from this shortlist. This year, we have an amazing panel of jurors for This is Art! 2024 They're a group of industry professionals, and super-talented creatives.
Unfortunately due to the volume of entries we get, our team simply cannot provide feedback for every individual submission. For some highly commended artworks, our jury panel may provide comments which we will share with artists along with their Certificate of Commendation.
In November 2024, either you (if you're over 18) or your parent / guardian will get a call from our team. Your artwork will be showcased prominently on our website homepage.
All winning entries will be featured on the This is Art! Website and social media channels.
Your artwork will be available for all to see here on our website once our gallery goes live on 30th September 2024. Your Local Authority may also decide to exhibit your submission as part of their annual art programmes, including Cruinniú na nÓg celebrations.
No, it must be something you made in the last year for it to be considered in the competition.
Absolutely. You may enter again this year with a new and original piece of art that has been made within the last year.
Unfortunately not. The artwork you submit to This Is Art! must be unique and never submitted to any competition in the past.
"Yes, all artists maintain ownership of their artwork. However, by submitting to the competition, you grant permission to This is Art!, RTÉ, The Creative Ireland Programme, Shared Island Initiative and selected Local Authorities, as well as any third-party service providers, to use the artwork to promote the art, the competition, and to feature it on social media and in local or national exhibitions, as well as on the companion TV programme “This is Art Club!”.
It's important to note that your artwork may be edited or cropped to improve image quality."
Keep your image files under 5MB for easy uploading.
We accept both JPG and PNG formats.
Make sure your artwork is original and all yours - no copying allowed!
Show respect to others by asking permission before using someone's image in your artwork.
Let's keep it classy - steer clear of defamatory, obscene, explicit, or hateful content, or anything that could be considered threatening.
We want to make sure everyone can enjoy the digital gallery, so submissions will be moderated to ensure the gallery is appropriate for all ages.
In other words, only submit what you'd feel comfortable sharing in school - no graphic, violent, adult, or explicit content, please!
Get creative! Use any materials you'd like for your artwork.
For now, we cannot accept moving image artworks like animation, film, video or GIFs. However if you are an artist who works with the moving image you can still choose to submit a photograph, still images, frame grab or character design. Please use your artist's statement to explain the work that your chosen image represents.
If you’re submitting a performance art piece, make sure the essence of it can be captured in a photo. Just don't forget to give us all the details in your artist statement.
Remember to submit two images per entry - one of your artwork and one with you holding it. This second image is for verification purposes only, and only the artwork image will be displayed in the digital gallery.
If you (or an adult) have read through everything on our website and are still unclear about something please send us an email here: hello@thisisart.ie.
We’ll try our best to get back to you as quickly as possible.
Submissions for the competition open from Tuesday 10th September 2024 and the digital gallery will go live in October.
As your submissions come in, they'll be checked over by our moderators and added to the digital gallery.
Keep checking back in – the digital gallery will be updated daily with new works of art.
Your first name, age, and county of residence will be posted online alongside your artwork and artist statement.
The entry form will be available on the website from the 10th September.