Crystal City, Manitoba. (Krazytea/Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Rural by Design contest is for students to submit their art, or other visual mediums to show what they mean and how they define rural Canada. Submissions may be original artworks, photographs, collages, digital illustrations, or graphic designs.

A large part of our country and province itself is rural; the definition of which can be small towns, villages and other populated places with less than 1,000 population. It may also be estate lots, as well as agricultural, undeveloped and non-developable lands, or remote and wilderness areas. One out of three Canadians live in various rural areas. Rural Canada is our home and part of our education through the Rural Development Institute. There is a beauty to rural Canada and this contest shows what it means to each participant and can help other to see that as well.

The contest rules are as follows: the submissions must be original works, the contestants must be 18 years of age by the deadline of the contest and they must be Brandon University students.

You can take part in this contest by submitting your work to the Rural Development Institute office by end date of January 12th, 2018 and including a 100 to 200 word description of the story your work is telling about ‘rural’, you will need to provide your full name, email address, and phone number. If your work is chosen, you will need to complete a Release Form

Each submission to the contest will be judged by a panel of Rural Development and Fine Arts students, staff and faculty. The chosen submissions will be displayed at the Rural Development Institute office for a 12-month period. The top three winners will receive prizes, which will be announced at a later date.

All entries must be submitted by January 12th 2018. For those of you who have submitted works or will be doing so, good luck. For those who chose not to participate, take time once the contest has finished and the submissions put on display, and admire the beauty of the rural parts of our country and province.