Calling All Designers: Innovate for YPT

YPT is excited to announce our first ever t-shirt design contest!

We are looking for designs that capture the idea of “Innovation through Arts Education.” The winning design will be announced on November 7, 2011.

Innovation through Arts Education, huh? So what does that mean? As President Barack Obama said in his 2011 State of the Union address, “To win the future, America needs to out-educate, out-innovate, and out-build the rest of the world.” At YPT, we know our students will not “win the future” by correctly answering multiple choice questions on standardized tests. We are committed to teaching our students to innovate, so they’re ready for the challenges of tomorrow, giving them the tools they need to think critically, solve problems creatively and share their ideas clearly with the rest of the world.

As YPT launches our first-ever online store, we are looking for a flagship t-shirt design that captures the message and the promise of “Innovation through Arts Education,” to spread the word about the importance of keeping the arts in the classroom.

Our Mission
Young Playwrights’ Theater teaches students to express themselves clearly and creatively through the art of playwriting.

Through interactive in-school and after-school programs, YPT activates student learning and inspires students to understand the power of language and realize their potential as both individuals and artists. By publicly presenting and discussing student-written work, YPT promotes community dialogue and respect for young artists.

How It Works

1. Create a beautiful design that captures YPT’s mission and commitment to Innovation through Arts Education!
2. Create a mockup of the t-shirt with your design.
3. Email lharbison@yptdc.org your design, along with this form, with the subject line “YPT T-Shirt Contest”. Submissions are due on Thursday, October 27.
4. The YPT staff will choose our three favorite designs and post the finalists on Facebook for a public vote based on number of “likes”!
5. The winning design will be sold in YPT’s CafePress store and worn by staff and supporters to promote our Innovation through Arts Education campaign. The winning designer will also receive a free t-shirt featuring his/her design, a feature interview article featuring his/her design work in an upcoming addition of The YPT Wire (reaching 3,000 readers), and front row seats and public recognition from the stage during YPT’s Express Tour Showcase on November 14, 2011.
6. Every t-shirt sold will raise $5 for YPT, and help spread the word about the importance of keeping the arts in the classroom.

Design Rules

• Your design must be sent as a vector graphic or actual size JPEG (minimum resolution 300 DPI).
• Designs should complement YPT’s existing branding and support our mission. YPT orange is #F8971D (RGB: 248, 151, 29; CMYK: 0, 48, 100, 0). YPT purple is #5D2070 (RGB: 93, 32, 112; CMYK: 63, 95, 0, 30).
• You may use YPT’s company logo and the Innovation through Arts Education logo within, or as inspiration for your design, but this is not a requirement.
• All designs should be for a white t-shirt. Designs should fit within a square on the chest of the shirt, and no part of the design can be on the sleeves, shoulders or stomach.
• YPT assumes all entries are the work and property of the entrant, with all rights granted therein.
• You can submit more than one design, but only one of your designs will be eligible for the final voting round.
• YPT Staff will choose three designs based on originality, effective visualization and communication of “Innovation through Arts Education” and completeness of design.

Have fun innovating!

Liza
Communications and Graphic Design Associate

Laurie Ascoli: It Matters

When I was in kindergarten, my teacher told my mom that she feared I wasn’t able to distinguish fantasy from reality.  I don’t think I was ever at that point, but I do know that my imagination was completely out of control and didn’t know what to do with itself at school.  At home I could spend hours thinking up soap opera dramas for my Disney action figures to perform, but at school there were few outlets for my hyperactive imagination and so I had to create them for myself.  When we were asked to write ten sentences demonstrating the uses of vocabulary words, I strung them together to create a complete story.  When instructed to write an essay on why we shouldn’t do drugs, I wrote a play.  When other kids played soccer at recess, I sat in the grass and imagined that we were all toys belonging to a giant who controlled our every move.

In third grade, my school started offering an after-school activity program, and drama was one of the options.  I’d always loved acting in class plays, so I signed up.  The end product of the program was going to be a staged version of Rumplestiltskin, and the director decided to cast the lead female role by having us guess numbers between one and twenty.  I guessed the correct number (thirteen) and excitedly began prepping for the role.  When my big moment on stage came and I stood there histrionically wailing after Rumplestiltskin threatened to take my baby, listening to the audience’s laughter, I realized that my imagination now had a place to go.

As I continued performing throughout middle and high school, I felt a palpable sense of relief at having a safe place to go where my creativity was not only accepted, but encouraged and nurtured.  I went to a standard public high school, but we were one of the few fortunate schools to actually have theater classes available as part of our regular schedule as well as an after-school program.  Theater became a place to escape the cliques of girls in my class who only wanted to talk about nail polish and introduced me to other kids who loved and needed art just as much as I did.  While in elementary school theater expanded my already active imagination, in high school it taught me about commitment, responsibility and passion.  (You don’t give up hours to rehearsal every evening and weekend when you’re 16 unless you really, really love what you’re doing.)  More importantly, though, it taught me about myself.  While exploring different characters in a myriad of plays with a team of other students, I began to discover who I was and where I fit into the world.

Of the core group of theater students in my high school, nearly all of us have gone on to have careers in the arts.  We are theater artists, TV producers, filmmakers, stand up comics and musicians.  I can’t imagine that any of us would have found our passions as easily or held onto them as firmly had we not been exposed to the arts at such a crucial and formative age.

Since my graduation, theater classes at my high school have been cut back, but they still exist.  There is a new generation of students finding their voice through the arts and getting ready to declare themselves theater, music and humanities majors. It’s hard for me to imagine what my life would be like if I hadn’t been introduced to theater when I was.  Would I have followed an entirely different career path?  Would my crazy imagination just have died out at some point?  I’m glad I never had to find out the answers to these questions, and hope that one day arts education will become so standard that no other students will, either.

Click here to learn more.

Laurie performs at the American College Theatre Festival.

Laurie Ascoli
YPT Program Assistant