Warner encourages young WV artists to enter White House exhibit to celebrate women's suffrage

Charleston, W.Va. — Secretary of State Mac Warner is pleased to join First Lady Melania Trump to encourage young artists in West Virginia to submit original artwork for an exhibit celebrating the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

This week, the First Lady announced an art exhibit called "Building the Movement: America's Youth Celebrate 100 Years of Women's Suffrage". The purpose of the exhibit is to help celebrate the centennial anniversary of women’s suffrage in America. As chair of the coordinating committee for the WV Centennial Celebration of the 19th Amendment, Warner wants to spread the word quickly that this is a great opportunity for young artists and West Virginia.

"With school already out for the summer, we need to get information to young artists in any way that we can," Warner said. "This is a great opportunity for West Virginia students to represent our state with artwork in the national exhibit."

Participation is limited to students enrolled in grades 3 to 12, including this year's graduating seniors. Each student may enter an original piece of two-dimensional art in one of the three categories. The White House will select one artwork to be included in the exhibit from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, America Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

All entries must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday, July 6, 2020. Click here for more details on the exhibit and how to participate. Several resources and a state toolkit are available at the link.

Secretary Warner wants to maximize West Virginia's participation in the project by encouraging as many students as possible to participate. Every student who submits an entry will receive a personalized letter from the First Lady and a separate letter from Secretary Warner.