‘Wrangell HS Makes the Vans High School Custom Culture Art Program Top 50: You Can Help Their Project Win’ by ACSA Staff

To be awarded the $50,000 grant, the students need your support. The finalists of the competition are selected by vote. You can cast one vote per day until May 6th, by following this link. https://customculture.vans.com/2022/gallery

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To inspire creativity and bring attention to diminishing arts education budgets, Vans Shoes, created the Vans High School Custom Culture Art Program.

The program is a customization competition using blank Vans shoes to customized around the theme of Hometown Pride and VanD(IY)oren Legacy. VanD(IY)oren Legacy revolves around the four pillars of the shoe company’s founder: action, sports, art, music and street culture. The winning art program receives a $50,000 grant.

High School students in Wrangell have made it in the Top 50 selection of the 2022 competition. Their design is inspired by the nature of Southeast Alaska and Tradition Tlingit art. One pair of shoes designed by the students is red and black with Lingit-inspired formline of a wolf and raven, with cuffs of long brown fur at the ankles of the shoe.

The second pair of shoes has a summer sunset scene on one shoe and a winter sunset with the Northern Lights on the other, iconic scenes of Wrangell.

In the school’s impact statement, art teacher, Tasha Morse shares how the receiving the grant would impact the students of the small island community. “It would teach our students an important life lesson–that their ideas, needs, talents, and aspirations for the future matter, that they are respected by the “larger” world, and that they can compete and flourish in society at large. Convincing our students of this is one of the most difficult challenges we face.”

Morse added, “For Wrangell, this award would be more than an art grant. It would be a validation of a way of life.”

To be awarded the $50,000 grant, the students need your support. The finalists of the competition are selected by vote. You can cast one vote per day until May 6th, by following this link. https://customculture.vans.com/2022/gallery