Picasso’s view that ‘Every child is an artist’ is reflected in an island-wide children’s art competition just announced by the Commercial Bank of Ceylon to invite young artists to express their thoughts through drawings, and to encourage, recognise and reward their talent.
The ‘Arunalu Siththam Children’s Art Competition 2021’ conducted under the banner of the Bank’s popular children’s savings account ‘Arunalu’ will present more than Rs 2 million in 137 cash prizes in addition to 250 Merit Certificates, the Bank said.
The competition is open to any Sri Lankan child irrespective of whether he or she is an account holder at Commercial Bank, and will be conducted under five age groups : Pre-school Category (ages 4-5), Primary Category (ages 6-7), Post Primary Category (ages 8-10), Junior Category (ages 11-13), and Senior Category (ages 14-16). While the younger contestants can choose their own topics and draw on A3 size paper, participants in the Junior Category should submit drawings that demonstrate the theme of ‘Our lifestyle,’ and Senior category participants should submit drawings under the theme of ‘Gifts of nature,’ on 14×18 inch paper. Participants may choose any medium of their preference to express themselves but avoid sticky or non-drying types of paint, the Bank said.
To enter the competition, applicants must visit www.arunalusiththam.lk before 10th November 2021 and upload a scanned copy of their completed drawing along with relevant details. The drawing should be in JPEG format and should not exceed 5MB in file size. Submissions are limited to one drawing per contestant and should be an original piece of work, never-before submitted to any other competition.
During submission, applicants will be asked to complete details such as their full name, date of birth, address, email address, telephone number, name of parent or guardian, and name of school and address. When a drawing is selected for the final round, applicants will be required to send in the hard copy of the drawing to the Bank. Upon winning a prize, the original drawing must be certified by the child’s school principal, Grama Niladhari, a lawyer or by a Justice of the Peace.
The Bank said 25 of the youngest contestants who submit outstanding original drawings in the Pre-School category will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 10,000 each with certificates. Another 50 participants in this category will also receive Merit Certificates.
Furthermore, the drawings that win first place in the other four categories will each be awarded a cash prize of Rs 100,000, while the second and third placed drawings in these categories will receive cash prizes of Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively, along with certificates.
In each of the Post-Primary, Primary, Junior and Senior categories 25 contestants will also receive Awards of Excellence with cash prizes of Rs 10,000, totaling up to Rs 1 million, and 100 certificates. Another 50 contestants from each of these four categories will be awarded Merit Certificates. All cash prizes will be credited to Arunalu Children’s Savings Accounts of Commercial Bank.
Commercial Bank will reserve all rights to the submitted drawings and all decisions made by a veteran panel of judges regarding winners will be final, the Bank said.
Commercial Bank launched the ‘Arunalu Siththam Art Competition’ in 2017. The flagship children’s savings account of Commercial Bank, Arunalu, after which the competition was named, offers a higher interest rate for Children’s Savings Accounts and rewards account holders with special cash prizes if they score the first, second or third highest aggregate marks in their schools at the Year 5 Scholarship Examination.
Sri Lanka’s first fully carbon neutral bank, the first Sri Lankan bank to be listed among the Top 1000 Banks of the World and the only Sri Lankan bank to be so listed for 11 years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 268 branches and 931 automated machines in Sri Lanka. The Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 19 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a Microfinance company in Nay Pyi Taw; and the Maldives, where the Bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake.