UNESCO proclaimed the year of 2017 as “Year of Kosciuszko” honoring the bicentennial of his passing in 1817. As part of the bicentennial celebrations, the Kosciuszko Heritage Inc (Sydney), together with the Kosciuszko Mound Committee (Kraków) and the Kosciuszko Foundation (New York and Warsaw), has announced an international competition in music, literature and graphic arts. The Kosciuszko Bicentenary International Competition aims to promote Poland and Polish history through Kosciuszko’s heroic story to younger generations and broader communities, as well as expand contemporary repertoire of Kosciuszko’s songs and iconography. Entrants will be divided into two age categories—adults and high school students (aged 12 to 18) —and will allowed to submit up to 3 works, under the condition that they depict 3 different episodes of Kosciuszko’s life. Additional guidelines and the online entry form can be found here: kosciuszkoheritage.com.
The deadline for submission is July 31, 2017 and must be sent to competition@kosciuszkoheritage.com.
The jury panel will be led by prof. Alex Storożynski, the executive director of the Kosciuszko Foundation in Manhattan. Results will be announced on October 3 during a gala event in Sydney, where more than AUD $10,000 in prize money may be awarded.
General Thaddeus Kosciuszko (1746-1817) was a national hero in Poland and the United States, freedom fighter and military leader, ardent advocate for the rights of European serfs, African Slaves, Native American Indians, Jews, women and all other disenfranchised social groups on two continents. He was also an engineer and a founder of West Point. Kosciuszko represented a precursor in the development of national awareness in its modern sense,an embodiment of the principle of tolerance, and called by Thomas Jefferson “the purest son of liberty, I have ever known.”
[Source: thekf.org]