United Nations Peace Messenger Michael Douglas Launches Art Contest

 

Urging Children to Imagine World Free of Nuclear Weapons

 

NEW YORK, 21 February (Office for Disarmament Affairs) — Michael Douglas, United Nations Messenger of Peace, disarmament activist and internationally famed actor and producer has given his time to help promote a world free of nuclear weapons by producing a public service announcement to promote an international art contest for young people.

His public service announcement is already airing on UNTV and Time Warner Cable channel 150 in the United States, and will be made available to broadcasting companies across the globe.  Meanwhile, the public service announcement is currently available for viewing at http://www.unartforpeace.org.

Contestants, ages 5 through 17, are encouraged to watch one of several short age-appropriate video films online about the dangers of nuclear weapons, and then imagine a world free of nuclear weapons, without wars, without bombs, without fear.  Based on their musings, young people are asked to use their creative talents to draw, paint and sketch, using pens, pencils, crayons, charcoal, oil, acrylic paint or water colours, and upload original artwork to the online site.

All art work will be judged based on the criteria of creativity, composition, theme and technique.  Each entry will be posted on the website for contestants to share their dream of peace.  Once the artwork is posted, family and friends can vote on the United Nations Peace Day Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/unpeaceday.

In order to make this a truly global contest, the colourful flyer promoting the contest to children and teens has already been translated into 22 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian.

More language versions of the flyer are continuously being added to the site since a call went out to United Nations staff to donate 10 minutes of their lunch hour to help promote a world free of nuclear weapons by translating the flyer into as many languages as possible.

As Mr. Douglas notes in his message: “Art is the universal language; art speaks to our hearts and minds; art can make a difference and so can you.”

For more information on the Art for Peace Contest, please contact Ewen Buchanan at tel: +1 212 963 3022, e-mail: buchanane@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record