MADISON – Students can start now with an idea to materialize for the Reflections fine arts contest for 2024-2025.

Each year, National PTA, sponsor for Reflections, invites students across the country to participate – a national competition to select an original work that corresponds to a theme among six categories in the fine arts.

This year’s theme is “Accepting Imperfection,” submitted by Paige Opaska from Barbara Bush Middle School PTA in Texas. National PTA always uses a theme from a student.

Opaska said, “’Accepting Imperfection’ is a reminder to myself that mistakes are welcome because they are a part of being human. Our flaws are as much a part of us as our strengths, so being imperfect should be perfect enough for us.”

For the 2023-2024 Reflections contest, three Madison City Schools students won an Award of Merit honor at the national level: Adalynn Loomis, Midtown Elementary School, Photography; Tisha Nair, Mill Creek Elementary School, Dance Choreography; and Eleri Sanders, Liberty Middle School, Literature.

An excerpt from “Look Up” by Eleri Sanders: “Hope is hard. 7 funerals. 6 months and 6 letters I wish I could forget.”

With Reflections, any student in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 can submit an original work of art inspired by the theme in one of six categories:

* Literature – Includes works of fiction and nonfiction in the form of poetry, prose, drama, short stories, screenplay and lyrics.

* Music Composition — Original musical composition in all music styles and combinations of instrumentation, with or without words. The student must be the composer.

* Photography – Allows a single print or digital image in color or black and white. Students can include techniques, like photogram, negative sandwich and multiple exposure.

* Visual Arts – Includes fine and design styles, for drawing; painting in tempera, oil, acrylic, watercolor and T-shirt paints; computer-generated art; two-dimensional collage; printmaking; needlework; sculpture; and leather tooling.

* Film/Video – Involves short-film styles in original work, with or without sound, for animation, narrative, documentary, experimental or music video/film in one gigabyte maximum.

* Choreography/Dance – Open to solo and ensemble works for all dance styles in originally choreographed dance composition. The student must serve as choreographer and a performer.

For more information, visit pta.org/home/programs/reflections.