News Release

Student Marine Art on Exhibit at Cape Cod National Seashore in March

Award-winning marine art by Massachusetts students, many of them local, will be on exhibit at Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham in March.

"Moon Jellies" by Melissa Velie was a past award recipient.

News Release Date: February 27, 2018

Contact: Dani Cessna, 508-255-3421

WELLFLEET, Mass. – An exhibition of works from the 2017 Marine Art Contest sponsored by Massachusetts Marine Educators (MME) will be on display at Cape Cod National Seashore’s Salt Pond Visitor Center throughout March. The artwork, created by students from schools across Massachusetts, as well as entries from several other states, captures the diversity of species found in nearby Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS). The show includes winners and honorable mention recipients from all five contest categories – high school, middle school, elementary school, scientific illustration (all grades), and computer graphics (all grades). Several students from the Cape and Islands are represented in the exhibit. These include Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School, Eddy Elementary School, Sandwich STEM Academy, Falmouth High School, and Nauset Regional High School.

The 2018 Marine Art contest is now underway, with a deadline of April 7, 2018. Rules for the contest can be found at the MME website or the Stellwagen Bank sanctuary website. Winning artwork from the past few years can also be viewed at the sanctuary website.

The annual Marine Art contest is a program of the Massachusetts Marine Educators (MME), a nonprofit grass-roots organization of teachers, informal educators, students, educational institutions, and others dedicated to the goals of developing a marine literate society and promoting awareness of the ocean world by integrating marine studies into existing curricula. The contest theme is “Exploring the Marine Biodiversity of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.”

“The contest is an exciting way of encouraging interdisciplinary education by integrating marine science with art,” said Anne Smrcina, contest director. “Through this creative effort, students learn more about some of the local marine life found in their own ocean backyard.”

Co-sponsors for the annual art contest include Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, New England Aquarium, Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, and the Ocean Genome Project. The traveling art exhibit is sponsored by the sanctuary and MME.

For more information on the art contest, contact Anne Smrcina, Education Coordinator at Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, or call: 781 546-6007.

IF YOU GO: Salt Pond Visitor Center is located at 50 Nauset Road at the intersection of Route 6 in Eastham, and can be reached at 508-255-3421. The center is open daily from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, with staff to assist with activity planning. Visit the museum, view a park film, enjoy panoramic views of Salt Pond and Nauset Marsh, and shop in the gift and bookstore featuring national seashore-related items.