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every four years since year 2000.
This contest hopes to encourage all National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to foster an active synergy between the worlds of art and sport at national and international level and to heighten perception of the link between these two areas.
Sculptures and graphic works are the two categories for art works that will be considered for this contest under the theme “Sport and the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect”.
The contest is open to artists from countries with a recognised NOC and will consist of two stages of a national and an international phase.
Each NOC will be directly responsible for the national phase, while the IOC Department of International Co-operation and Development and the Olympic Museum, Lausanne, will handle the organisation of the international phase. This will include an exhibition of the winning works.
The NOCs may enter a single sculpture and a graphic work in the international contest.
The Commission for Culture and Olympic Education will set up an international jury, formed by authorities on art from all five continents along with representatives of the IOC and The Olympic Museum, Lausanne which will award prizes.
The prizes would be for each of the two categories of works of art entered in the international phase of the contest. A first prize of US$30 000 and a first prize diploma will be awarded to the overall winning work, US$20 000 and a diploma for the second, US$10 000 and a diploma for the third and five diplomas for the runners-up.
The National Olympic Committees are free to organise their national contests in the manner they consider most appropriate to their respective countries or regions, so long as the regulations for the international phase are observed.
The artist is at liberty to interpret the designated theme by combining the three values or depict only one of the values in the work submitted.
All artworks to be submitted for the international phase of the competition must not exceed 1,5 x 1 x 1m in size including packaging for sculpture which also must not weigh more than 20 kilogrammes.
Graphic arts must be entered already framed and must not exceed 1,5 x 1 metre in size including the frame.
A national phase, under the organisational and financial responsibility of the respective NOC, will take place between September 2011 and February 2012 followed by the international phase that will run from March to June 2012.

l Stephen Garan’anga is an international fine art practitioner, independent art projects coordinator, chairperson of AfricanColours Artists, executive member Batapata International Artists’ Workshop, critical visual arts writer amongst other things. [email protected]