On May 8th, ten undergraduate students of the senior colleges of the City University of New York, were awarded prizes for their submissions in the 2012 Annual Labor Arts/CUNY contest. This year’s contest was titled “Making Work Visible,” with a focus on “celebrating work and workers in the U.S. labor movement and beyond.” The May 8th ceremony which celebrated the awardees and Co-Founder and Co-Chair, Donald Rubin, of the Rubin Museum of Art, was attended by City University of New York Chancellor Matthew Goldstein.
The contest’s main purpose was to “revitalize the study of labor history at CUNY,” and was sponsored by Labor Arts and the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation. The entries for the contest consisted of essays; narratives both fiction and non-fiction; and poetry. The prizes were awarded based on the judgments in the categories of: originality, content and style.
The judges consisted of Professors and Deans from various City University of New York senior colleges. There were twelve prizes awarded, three first prize winners, three second prize, three third prize, and three for honorable mention.
The press release also states that “‘Labor Arts’ are broadly construed to include photographs, posters, buttons, banners, flyers, cartoons as well as paintings, sculpture and other fine art and music by or about working people. “
Winning essays and photos can be viewed at http://www.laborarts.org/exhibits/essaycontest2012/ along with the 2013 details for the competition.