Since 1998, Indiana Connection and participating Indiana electric cooperatives have held an annual art contest for Indiana students in grades kindergarten through 12. The winning works from each grade are then used to illustrate the Cooperative Calendar of Student Art that participating REMCs/RECs have distributed.
Each of the numbered grades is given the corresponding month of the year to illustrate: 12 grades, 12 months. It’s a perfect combination. Kindergartners are assigned the cover each year. The calendar is localized by the participating cooperatives to provide important information to consumers such as billing and annual meeting dates, phone numbers and electrical safety and energy efficiency information. The calendar helps co-ops meet one of the 7 cooperative principles — member information and education. In addition, by being illustrated with student art, the calendar helps fulfill another of the 7 principles — commitment to community. As more art programs in schools face budgetary challenges, Indiana Connection believes encouraging the arts — the imagination, self-expression and creativity these disciplines stimulate — is vital to society. Not only do the arts produce aesthetic beauty and entertainment for our hearts and souls, studies after study show the arts play a key role alongside science, technology, engineering and math in producing the minds of well-rounded, problem-solving, thoughtful individuals needed to lead and run our modern, high-tech world.
2024 Cooperative Calendar of Student Art Contest
Entries for the 2024 Cooperative Calendar of Student Art are now being accepted! Deadline for entries is March 24, 2023. Get entry forms and contest details here.
Congratulations to our 2023 Cooperative Calendar of Student Art Contest Winners!
Here are the students who will be gracing the pages of our 25th annual Cooperative Calendar of Student Art in 2023.
Grade Division winners ($200)
Kindergarten — Sophia Lueken, Jasper
First Grade — Arabella White, Medora
Second Grade — Alexander DeSchamp, Jasper
Third Grade — Flynn Cissell, Border
Fourth Grade — Kaylin Fuller, Charlestown
Fifth Grade — Lydia Kelley, Charlestown
Sixth Grade — Cali Ann Fox, Seymour
Seventh Grade — Adilynn Meyers, Decatur
Eighth Grade — Ellie Hilbert, Noblesville
Ninth Grade — Bailey Hering, Union Mills
10th Grade — Alivia Tucker, South Whitley
11th Grade — Andrew Zink, Winona Lake
12th Grade — Heidi Blattert, Mitchell
Best of Show — Andrew Zink (additional $100)
Honorable Mention winners ($75)
Kindergarten — Mira Smith, Fairland
First Grade — Samuel Smith, Churubusco
Second Grade — Brantly Roller, Burnettsville
Third Grade — Elizabeth Avis, Elizabeth
Fourth Grade — Erika Batz, Williams
Fifth Grade — Elizabeth Blattert, Mitchell
Sixth Grade — Nandini Amol Kondhare, Columbus
Seventh Grade — Sophie Yang, Brownsburg
Eighth Grade — Ashelyn Evans, Medaryville
Ninth Grade — Sarah Stonerock, Greenfield
10th Grade — Isabella Fox, North Vernon
11th Grade — Ellie Sims, Paoli
12th Grade — Addy Knakiewicz, Morocco
To learn more, you can view this article from our June 2022 issue here.
We will also be posting the artwork in our Gallery of Student Art as soon as possible.