OICA, OSMA Seek Youth Artists to Submit Work for Desk Calendar

The Theme of the Call is “A Healthy Future for Oklahoma’s Children”

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) has issued a call to young artists under the age of 18 to submit work for consideration to be published in the 2021 OICA Desktop Calendar.

Each year, OICA publishes a daily desktop calendar that is given to each legislator’s office, OICA sustaining members, sponsors, and sold online to the public. Each day’s calendar page features an important statistic relating to child well-being in Oklahoma. The calendar also celebrates the critical work done by organizations and individuals to help improve the quality of life for the state’s children. The calendar runs from February 2021 through January 2022.

Featured prominently on each page is artwork created by a youth artist in line with the theme. Partnering with the Oklahoma State Medical Association (OSMA), the theme for the 2021 OICA Desktop Calendar will be “A Healthy Future for Oklahoma’s Children.” Among the myriad of health-related topics young artists can show include:

• Eating a balanced diet;
• Getting immunized against preventable diseases;
• Proper seatbelt and child-seat usage; and
• Protecting against household dangers like common cleaners and chemicals.

“This is a great opportunity for young artists to get wide exposure for their work,” said Joe Dorman, CEO of OICA. “The calendars are on almost every desk at the State Capitol, and hundreds are sold and distributed the state. There really is no better way for a young artist to get their work in front of so many people.”

In addition to appearing on the calendar, the work will be seen across OICA’s social media channels. Every day’s calendar page is the first post from OICA each day, and the posts occur every morning by 8 a.m.

“The calendar and social media posts put young artists’ work in front of thousands of Oklahoma decision-makers, business leaders, and child advocates,” Dorman said. “We strongly encourage our state’s talented youth artists and their parents to consider submitting their work for the 2021 calendar.”

To submit the work, artists and their parents should go to https://oicaart.artcall.org, create a user account, and submit the work. Each artwork will need to reflect the theme of “A Healthy Future for Oklahoma’s Children.” Entries will be accepted through October 31, 2020.

If any youth artist or parent has questions about the call for art or the calendar program, call OICA at (405) 236-KIDS (5437), or email OICA at info@oica.org..