While people in the Lower Rio Grande Valley sleep at night, millions of migratory birds fly overhead to and from their breeding and wintering grounds. The goal of the LRGV student art awards is to promote art that opens awareness to these birds. The general idea is to channel student's creativity toward depicting the immense waves of nocturnal bird migration over the LRGV....each artwork serving as a bridge to help people in the LRGV visualize and appreciate the phenomenon.

Examples of content for artists to work with

• Birds migrating at night over the LRGV
• The migratory birds specifically monitored by the project (Least Sandpiper, Dickcissel, Black-and-white Warbler)
• The expanse of geography that the birds migrate to and from (as far as South America to the Arctic)
• The bird call monitoring transect at schools and the microphone(s) recording the bird calls
• The people and culture of the LRGV
• The idea of monitoring birds over time.  Will the species and numbers of bird calls  change over time?

Realism vs symbolism 

There is no weight in the awards toward realistic or symbolic art. The canvas is wide open!

Copyright & usage of art

Students own the copyright for their artwork. A single-use copyright for a low-resolution image of art submissions from each school is granted to the study for display on the study’s website.