Requirements

Eligibility

The Minoru Yasui Student Contest is open to students in the United States and territories attending public, private, parochial, or home school. Members of the Minoru Yasui Legacy Project and their families are not eligible to participate. Past first-place winners of the contest are not eligible to participate in the division they won. Youth ages 10-18 who are not enrolled in traditional K-12 schooling are welcome to apply. 

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Junior Division

The Junior division of the contest is open to all students in Grades 6 through 8.

Senior Division

The Senior division of the contest is open to all students in Grades 9 through 12.

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Criteria

• Submission deadline is Sunday, January 31, 2027, at 11:59 p.m. (PT).

• Artists often use their work to start discussions about important social and political issues.  There are two main components to a submission, a piece of artwork and the written or oral statement.

• Through a visual art piece, express your opinion about the prompt. 

• If submitting photography, ensure you have documented permission of those in the photograph.

• Artwork should be original and made by the artist.

• AI-generated art forms are not permitted.

• Artwork must also have an accompanying audio recording or written artist's statement (300 words maximum) describing how your art piece relates to:

  • The quote you selected by Minoru Yasui. How your work relates to the quote, the quote itself and a description as to why the quote is impactful.

    • If you used portions or a portion of a poem by Minoru for the contest instead of a quote, please cite the poem and the words from the poem that inspired you.

  • How words can inspire change, motivate people to action and influence emotions.

  • Minoru’s legacy of justice.

• Grades 6-8 are to be entered for the Junior Division, and 9-12 are to be entered for the High School Division.

• Students must have an adult’s permission, email address and phone number to be able to enter the contest.

• The contest is limited to US residents.

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Evaluation

Click here to view the 2027 Rubric in a new window.​