HELENA — The Helena Business Improvement District is holding a contest to find new artwork to feature on banners downtown.
The Helena BID puts seasonal banners up on 106 light posts throughout downtown—summer banners and winter banners.
“We got to looking at our summer banners after we took them down this year and thought, ‘these are a little ratty, let’s do something fun,’” Helena BID executive director Alysia Ryan said.
That something fun—a contest to design new summer banners that will hang downtown from May through October.
“There are so many talented, creative artists in this town, it’s crazy,” Ryan said.
One requirement for the contest is that artists must be based in Montana, although they do not have to be professionals.
“Weekend painters, sketchers, high school students, college students—we want all the submissions we can get,” Ryan said.
There are also a few design requirements--the art must be scalable to fit both the smaller 25.5-inch by 15-inch banners and the larger 94-inch by 30-inch banners, and Ryan said the art must be a positive and vibrant representation of Helena.
Designs must be submitted by Jan. 9 at 3 pm.
If fewer than four designs are submitted, the Helena BID design committee will choose a winner. If there are more submissions, the design committee will choose the top three submissions, then there will be a public vote to choose the winner.
The winning design will be featured on the city’s new summer banners for at least the next four years. The winning artist will get a $750 cash prize, and a bundle of gift cards to downtown businesses.
Learn more and submit a design on the Helena BID website.
