The 11th annual Hispanic Heritage scholarship art competition sponsored by Latino Art Beat for high school juniors and seniors living in Miami, FL, Chicago, IL, Houston, TX, Los Angeles, CA and Washington DC is underway.

This year's theme is "What Hispanic Heritage & Culture Means to Me"!

There are several ways budding artists (and we're not just talking about painters here) can show off their skills and get a chance to win either a $1,000, $750 or $500 scholarship towards college.

The competition categories are: Drawing & Painting, 3-D Artwork, 3-D Sculpture, Photography, Computer Generated Art (Advanced level) and Film & Animation (i.e. Short videos or flip-books).

Winners of the competition not only receive scholarship awards, but if accepted by an academic partner of Latino Arts Beat, are also eligible for higher scholarship awards. In addition to the scholarships, winners will be recognized locally during this year's Hispanic Heritage Month and the specialty retailer, Nordstrom, a partner of the competition, will feature winning artwork from the 2008 competition in window displays of select stores and online at Nordstrom.com during 2008 Hispanic Heritage Month.

2006 National Winner painted by Kandy Lopez of Miami, FL.
(Source: Latino Art Beat)

Also, the competition and its winners will be highlighted in the Nordstrom September fashion catalogue.

The deadline is fast approaching — May 29, 2008.

Details for the contest are only available at public high school art departments in those cities mentioned above.

If you're not sure it's worth all the trouble, last year's national winner was awarded a $60,000 scholarship to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art - an academic partner of Latino Art Beat.