Winners Receive Prizes for the First National Painting for Values Contest

Winners Receive Prizes for the First National Painting for Values Contest
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 12/16/2011

Artists competed with one or two pieces of their work inspired by the thirteen values that make up the Good for You (Bien por ti!) national strategy.

Margarita Cedeño de Fernández said the contest served a double purpose of stimulating and projecting Dominican art.

The Office of the First Lady (DPD in Spanish) handed out prizes to the winners of the First National Painting for Values Contest whose paintings are inspired by the thirteen values that form part of the National Strategy for a Society with Values – Good for You, Your Values Make the Country Better.

Speaking to those who attended the awards ceremony, the First Lady said she was moved and impacted by the quality and beauty of the paintings which showed the talent, creativity and interpretive techniques of the country’s youth. “With all my heart I congratulate each and everyone one of you who participated and who, with your art, have sketched a path to follow to awaken feelings and values in the national consciousness.”

Margarita Cedeño de Fernández said the contest served a double purpose of stimulating and projecting Dominican art. “From the Office of the First Lady, we came up with the National Contest so that young artists would use canvas, colors, form and texture to interpret human and citizens’ values which we are promoting in the National Strategy for a Society with Values – Good for You,” she said.

The First Lady said she was proud of the impressive work done by the artists who included values as a way of expressing the national need to rescue and strengthen them and to help get the country on the road to progress, peace and social justice as these paintings serve as guidelines for compassionate behavior, personal realization and social transformation.

First place winner was Juan Carlos Reyes, who received 100,000 pesos; in second place, Argenis Matos won 75,000 pesos and Alberto Caraballo, took third place and a prize of 50,000 pesos. Angeisi Gómez, Samuel Priego Caballero and Juan Arturo Rosario received honorable mention.

Other artists recognized for their work included Ana de León, Octavia Roger, Celso Trufel, Arlette Espaillat, Marino Bidó Bidó, Emin Alcántara and Eric Arias, who received special mention and a sum of 10,000 pesos each. All 56 finalists in the contest received a certificate.

The jury that selected the winners was comprised of Rosa Tavárez, Danilo de los Santos and Marianne de Tolentino, who chose 56 finalists from the 160 artists who initially entered the contest.

In the name of the participants, artist from San Pedro de Macoris, Alberto Caraballo thanked the Office of the First Lady for organizing the event that was widely viewed as exceptional.  He said the contest was unprecedented in the country as it involved culture in a campaign to promote national values which gave artists a chance to meld history and the visual actions of human beings.

Those present at the activity included the Minister of Education, Josefina Pimentel; Deputy Culture Minister, Bernarda Jorge; Director of the Gallery of Fine Arts, Mariam de Tolentino; president of the Dominican Association of Art Critics, César Iván Feris Iglesias and Miguel Valenzuela, among other personalities connected to the art scene in the country.

About the Contest

The values promoted by the Office of the First Lady’s national strategy are: Honesty, responsibility, solidarity, social justice, love of others, faith, hope, humility, peace, integrity, tolerance, dignity and respect.

The contest rules were announced by the organizing committee at an event over which the First Lady presided. The event took place at the Trinitarian Hall of the National Children’s Library of the Dominican Republic (BIJRD) this past August.

Contest participants are artists between the ages of 18 and 35 and must be Dominican, foreign nationals or legal residents with a minimum of 5 years in the country.

The organizing committee accepted previously unpublished work which expressed or represented one or several of the 13 values that make up the “Good for You” campaign. Work was accepted in a format of not less than 20×24 inches and not larger than 30×40 inches.