Outdoor Artists/Photographers…We want You!

Each year since 1970, a Christmas Tree has been selected from one of the nation’s 153 national forests, presented to the United States, and received by the Speaker of the House. For the first time in twelve years, the tree will be a gift from the state of Colorado. This magnificent natural monument will be placed prominently on the Capitol lawn and beautifully decorated with ornaments made by school children from across Colorado. In honor of this national event, the US Forest Service, through its non-profit partner, Choose-Outdoors, will host a juried art competition to select an official artwork representing the 2012 Capitol Christmas Tree. It is with great pride that we announce the 2012 Capitol Christmas Tree Art Juried Art Exhibition –Into the Woods.

The traditional goal of this juried competition is to produce an official artwork representative of the Capitol Christmas Tree to be presented to the Chief of the Forest Service with the work subsequently placed in the permanent “Tree Gallery” of past contest winners. Although Colorado still seeks to find our official artwork to take to Washington, the 2012 Capitol Christmas tree art contest will be open to artists from across America and expanded to include broader themes, cash awards, more categories the desire to engage children and youth. This year, Into The Woodswill award a total of $4,000 in cash prizes along with the opportunity for all winning artworks to be included in a traveling exhibition that accompanies the Capitol Christmas Tree on its whistle stop tour from Colorado to Washington D.C. Deadline for entry and artwork submission is September 1, 2012. For more information or to register please visit www.callforentry.org .

Additionally, with support from the Aspen Art Museum and the Aspen Skiing Company, we are inviting all artists, art lovers, families and friends to join us in Aspen on August 18th for PAINT FOR THE TREE!. We will celebrate our great outdoors by taking art outside with a plein-air paint out and a day-long party full of art focused family fun. For more information please go to www.blacktie-colorado.com.

To acknowledge your interest or if you have any questions, please contact Carmel Koeltzow, Director, 2012 Capitol Christmas Tree Exhibition at 303-941-5872 or carmelkoeltzow@hotmail.com. For more information on the 2012 Capitol Christmas Tree please see www.capitolchristmastree2012.com