Vans Kicks-off Fifth Annual Custom Culture Art Competition for High Schools Nationwide

Vans Custom Culture Vans invites high school art students to take part in the fifth annual Vans Custom Culture art competition, designed to celebrate student creativity and support arts education.

In partnership with Americans for the Arts, Journeys and truth , students have the opportunity to vie against schools across the country to create the most dramatic artistic design using blank Vans shoes as a canvas. The winning school will receive a $50,000 donation for their school art program, and one of the designs will be put into production for sale in select Vans retail stores.

Now through Feb. 14 at noon PT, high school art teachers can register their students for the 2014 competition at Vans.com/customculture. Students will be tasked to design four pairs of blank Vans shoes, each to depict one of four themes representing the Vans "Off the Wall" lifestyle: action sports, art, music and local flavor.

Vans employees will help select the top 50 schools to be semi-finalists. The public will then have the opportunity to vote for their favorites through the Vans Custom Culture website between April 25 and May 12. The top five schools will move on as finalists, traveling to New York City to showcase their designs for celebrity judges and the chance to win $50,000 for their school art program. Vans will also donate $4,000 to each of the four runner-up schools, and another $50,000 to nonprofit partner Americans for the Arts, in support of their work as the nation's leading organization for advancing the arts and art education.

National retailer Journeys and truth, the nation's largest youth smoking prevention campaign, are partnering with Vans again for this year's competition and will offer additional award opportunities. Journeys will donate a $10,000 'Local Attitude' award to the school that creates the most compelling 'local flavor' design, and truth will offer the top 50 semi-finalists a chance to compete for yet another $10,000 award for their school's arts programs by having students customize a skateboard deck inspired by their reaction to a raw fact about tobacco.

To learn more about Vans Custom Culture or to register your school, please visit www.vans.com/customculture.
www.vans.com/customculture

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!