The EDAWN Foundation recently announced the three winning schools in the 4th Annual Taxi-Top Design Competition and a student from Jesse Hall Elementary School made the cut. Fifth grader Rylyn Talancon submitted a multi-colored design of snow-capped mountains, a lake, hot air balloons, and other features that embody what Northern Nevada is all about.
“Truly a love of the outdoors and nature, our state blue bird guides us on a picturesque, morning tour of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountains, lakes, and forests. Bright colors reflect another beautiful day in a place we call home,” states its description of the winning Sparks artwork.
The art competition was open to any student within the Washoe County School District who had an opportunity to submit their artwork January through March. This year’s taxi-top design competition yielded 64 entries, significantly more than previous years.
“The biggest change is that this year we had great participation from the middle schools. It made a big difference, we got an overwhelming response,” says EDAWN Director of Finance and Human Resources Rae McElroy. Members of the arts community and the EDAWN Foundation board judged the entries based on this main criteria:
– It is a simple and distinctive message that shows our visitors what students believe to be the real image of our region with an emphasis on what we want others to know about our region.
– It contains a minimum number of words so it is easily visible and easy to read on a taxi-top.
– The more creative and eye catching the better.
– Showing a quality of life or a business message and a vision of what Northern Nevada could become was also encouraged.
The EDAWN Foundation and WCSD agreed that engaging students in this type of art campaign would improve our young adults’ perspectives of the region and encourage them to engage in improving the image of the Reno-Sparks community.
“This came about in an effort to convey a more positive image of Northern Nevada and project more family-oriented advertising,” says EDAWN Foundation Program Manager Norma Yamaji.
Each of the winning schools received a $1,000 check from the EDAWN Foundation to be used to buy new classroom art supplies and winning designs will be displayed on local Whittlesea taxi cabs for one year.
The taxi cab company which has been in business for more than 70 years is a member and partner with the EDAWN Foundation. It has a fleet of 76 taxi cabs in service in the Reno-Sparks area.
“I enjoy the look on the kids’ faces when they win, it’s a huge accomplishment,” says Whittlesea General Manager Alex Crosby of the annual taxi-top competition. “This program is beneficial to the kids and our community and could maybe steer them towards a career in art one day,” Crosby adds.
“The judges had a lot to say about the students’ creativity in these designs. We really have a lot of up-and-coming artists in our school district,” McElroy says.
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