THE International Women’s Peace Group (IWPG, Chairwoman Hyun Sook Yoon) held the final award ceremony of the 6th International Loving-Peace Art Competition online on November 23.
The ceremony was simultaneously interpreted into 11 languages, including Spanish and Korean, for 800 participants, including award winners, parents, and IWPG staff.
The theme of this year’s event was ‘A heart of peace conveyed to friends suffering from war’, and 23,000 youth and children from 130 cities in 53 countries worldwide gathered to portray their message of peace.
This year, 112 people were awarded – 1 Grand Prize; 1 Gold, Silver, and Bronze per each division, making 12 in total; 5 Awards of Recognition per each division, making 20 in total; and several Participation Awards. The Grand Prize winner was given a scholarship of 1,000,000 KRW, and the total scholarship prize amount of the competition was 5,000,000 KRW.
Paola Andrea from Columbia (Carlos Leon Gomez School 9th grade) received the honour of Grand Prize. “I wanted to represent hope in the girl’s hair that is basically a set of clouds that is representing the sky. Through the heart, I wanted to show that everyone can have and that there are people who contribute to achieve world peace.”
The head judge of the finals, Shona Hammond Boys commented on the works, saying, “The winning works were outstanding for effort and completion. The large range of works showed how diverse children’s art experiences are from country to country and societies’ expectations of children’s art. The overall effort was sincere, and the team attempted to be inclusive.”
Another judge, Soon Nam Park, Chairwoman of Korean Japanese Art Exhibition, said, “I focused on the strong message of peace that I could sense from the drawings. I was happy to see so many young people desiring peace. I was happy to see so many young people desiring peace.”
IWPG Chairwoman Hyun Sook Yoon said, “I hope that our message of peace lights up children’s hopes and dreams of the future. Women are the main teachers and the essence of the household and half of the world population, which is why we must unite to make sure peace takes root in the international society and our communities. I would like to ask all women worldwide to become one with IWPG so that peace culture can be established all around the world.”
The International Loving-Peace Art Competition has been held every year since 2018 in major cities all around the world. It is part of IWPG’s peace initiative to spread peace in the local community, giving children and youth the opportunity to imagine and portray a world of peace.
In particular, follow-up events took place in 20 cities in Korea this year, such as local mentor-mentee partnerships and co-exhibitions with well-established artists in the community under the theme ‘The Exchange of Peace Outlooks Transcending Generations’ to discover and develop potential talents in the region. These activities gathered much support and enthusiasm in the local community.
These activities also led to 70 new MoUs with civil society organisations, NGOs, corporations, and press. IWPG will continue to work with them to discover local talent and establish peace culture in the community.
IWPG is an international women’s NGO registered in the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Department of Global Communications (DGC). It has members in 114 Branches in 122 countries and 730 partner organisations in 66 countries worldwide. It is actively working to build partnerships, spread a culture of peace, provide Women’s Peace Education, and support the legislation of the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW), under the vision of “realizing sustainable world peace.”
