Irish Arts Review

Album of MeritSource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 21, 50th Anniversary of the Texaco Children's ArtCompetition (2004), pp. 3-7Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25503148 .

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Wm^^^mWAm ~H,LD

ARTOT^l children's art

ALBUM

OF

MERIT

Since its inception 50 years ago,

submissions to the Texaco Children's

Art Competition have grown from

4,000 to 50,000.This dramatic increase is due to the

commitment of those at Texaco, generations of art teachers

throughout Ireland, and not least,

the fertile imaginations of enthusiastic

young artists

1 L-r: Rebecca Keating, age

7, Co Clare and and Rachel

McCracken age 8r Co Down

2 Artist John Keating (far right) in 1957 when he won a prize in the Caltex (Texaco)

Children's Art Competition

3 The artists chosen for the

50th anniversary An Post

commemorative stamps are: l-r

Daire Lee, Cian Colman, Daire

O'Rourke and Ailish Fitzpatrick

4 Kieren Cheung, age 5, Dublin 7, My Cat

The world into which the Texaco Children's Art Competition ^^^^^^^^^ B^B was born was one distinctly different from that in which

jH^HHHH^^H children live today. It was a time before television became ^^HHB^9^H universally available, a time when days seemed longer and ^^^^^^^^^^^H^?I^^^^H

summers seemed to last forever. Held annually since 1955, the ^^I^^^^^^^^^H^aj^^^H Competition has enjoyed an unbroken history of success and has ^^IBIl^^^^^^^^^^HH^^^^H served as an outlet through which children of all ages and back-

^^^^Hp'':^:^3^^^^^^^^^P "^^^^ k

grounds have expressed themselves in art ^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^^I^^feS^^^^^^^? Originally known as the Caltex Children's Art Competition, ^^^^^^^H^^PlHH'B?ll^^^^^^v

it was the first competition of its kind?indeed, the only ^^^K????^^^t?^^^?^^^^??^^^^^K? competition o? its kind. For children, it had a magical appeal? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^??^^^^^ttj^Bm one that has endured to this day. It offered that irresistible

"^""^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^f mixture of challenge, competition and reward. It offered also

^^^^^k ^^^^^^^B ^^^M the thrill of competition to which all children respond with glee. ^^^^H^^^^^^^H^^^V

4

SPECIAL EDITION ^^^^HB^^^T

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B

And it brought the prospect of reward, the excitement of

a trip to Dublin, a glittering array of prizes and a

moment of pride as each winner was presented with his

or her award by a distinguished person in the presence of

Mum and Dad.

The Texaco Children's Art Competition is truly

unique,' says Final Adjudicator Declan McGonagle. The

nearest approximation to it anywhere in the world is the

Unesco Arts Programme. But it must be stressed that

these international events are backed by public funds.

Texaco Children's Art is a private sponsorship, and all

the more commendable for that.' The objective set for

the Competition all those years ago differs little from

that which one would set for it today. Since 1955, it has

been to 'support and encourage children through art'.

This remains the foundation upon which the sponsor

ship is built. Symbolically, it recognises Texaco's desire to

invest in the community from which it draws its

commercial livelihood. By so doing, the Competition

provides a platform for increased brand awareness and a

forum in which key media relationships can be devel

oped. Internally, it is a conduit through which the Texaco

brand can be presented to Texaco employees on a global

basis in a positive manner.

Since 1955 the objective of the Texaco Children's Art Competition has been to support and encourage children through art. This remains the foundation upon which the sponsorship is built

A selection of

award-winning works from the

Texaco Children's

Art Competition

4 I IRISH ARTS REVIEW SPECIAL EDITION

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Yet the origins of the Competition were modest enough.

The idea sprang from a Havoline motor oil advertising jin

gle entitled Keep it Quiet. Former Texaco executive Sean

O'Shea, recalls how the idea of a Competition emerged one

evening, after work, during an informal session with col

league and international golfer Frank Webster, and Tim

O'Neill of Sun Advertising. 'I suggested that the

Competition should be aimed at schoolchildren,' Sean

O'Shea recalls, and Keep it Quiet was agreed as the theme.

Bord F?ilte Chairman Tim O'Driscoll presented the prizes.

I remember that the inaugural winners included the son of

Gresham Hotel owner Jim Stafford, the grandson of tenor

Count John McCormack, and Ann Fitzgerald who later

went on to illustrate the Lyon's Tea 'Minstrel' campaign.

'We had no idea how the thing would take off. But we

got a fantastic response?4,000 entries! The Guest of

Honour at our second Competition was the sister of

India's President Nehru, Madame Pandid Nehru. Things

just took off from the very start and the rest is history.'

Well, not quite. The Texaco Children's Art Competition

did not grow without the expertise and commitment of suc

cessive generations of dedicated professionals?men and

women who, year after year, devoted long hours to foster

ing the success of the Competition. People like Texaco's

Simon Behan, Don Hall and Maurice Mortell who helped the Competition snowball in the 1960s and 1970s.

0 ??- *

u

children's art I 9 i S - ?. C O ?

?

HOW THE COMPETITION WORKS The Texaco Children's Art Competition begins in October each year. An infor

mation pack is sent directly to all schools in Ireland with the aim of heighten

ing awareness and further increasing participation in the Competition. Then in

January a suite of communication materials and entry detail leaflets are distrib

uted to the public through Texaco service stations on a national basis. Closing

date for receipt of entries is set for the end of February, an event highlighted by

a multi-faceted marketing and PR campaign to remind teachers and children of

the approaching deadline.

There are seven age categories in the Competition: Category A (16 - 18

years), Category B (14 - 15 years), Category C (12

- 13 years), Category D (9 -

11 years), Category E (7 - 8 years), Category F (6 years and under) and

Category G (Special Needs 18 years and under). Category G, a section exclu

sively dedicated to entries from children with special needs, is one that

evolved over the years. Originally intended for children confined to hospital,

it has expanded to include all children who require special care for whatever

reason. It is in these entries that one can see the role that art plays in enabling

special needs children to express themselves so magnificently.

All entries received first undergo preliminary judging?a process conducted

by a panel of art experts. Today Texaco is working with Mr Eoin Butler (Head

of Visual Art, St Patrick's College, Dublin), Dr Kay O'Brien (Lecturer, St

Patrick's College, Dublin), Dr Denise Ferran (Artist and Art Historian), Ms

Colleen Frew (Art Education Officer, Ulster Museum) and Mr Alan Bremner

(Director of Television, UTV). After preliminary judging, a list of winners is

then passed to the Final Adjudicator whose responsibility it is to select the

final set of winners whose names are announced each April.

Twenty-three prizes are awarded in each of the seven

categories?first, second and third, for which winners

receive a cash prize and a certificate, and twenty Special

Merit Awards for which winners receive art materials

and a certificate. Once the winners are known, a media

reception is held in April to which the top three prize

winners in each category are invited. At this reception,

photographers and members of the media have the

opportunity to interview and photograph the winners

with their entries.

In May of each year, a Guest of Honour is invited

from the State, Government or the Arts community to

present the awards to the winners in the ballroom of the

Burlington Hotel in Dublin. Previous guests of honour

include former President and UN High Commissioner,

Mary Robinson, former Taoisigh, Lord Mayors,

Diplomats and other distinguished persons.

As each year draws to a close and the brochures for

next year s Competition are prepared, one final develop

ment awaits?the publication of the annual Texaco

Children's Art calendar of which approximately 30,000

copies are printed in full colour and distributed through

'schools and Texaco service stations. Reproduced on

these calendars is the work of twelve young artists who

entered the Competition in the previous year.

5 Award winner

Eoghan O'Keeffe

with his younger brother and winning

painting Man in

Stitches 2001

6 Niamh Fanning, overall winner 2004

7 Ruairi Quinn with

award winner Ian

Carter 1999

8 Archive

photograph shows

Lady Valerie Goulding

presenting a prize to

one proud winner

9 Award winner Cian

Keogh and family with Cian's winning

painting Head II

2004

10 Minister of State

Jim Tunney

presenting a prize at

the Awards

Ceremony in 1975

11 Edgar Grunewald

with his winning

picture Pools of

Reflection- Ha'penny

Bridge 2004

S P E C I A 1. EDITION I H I S M A R T S R E Y I K \Y |

5

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^^11 11 ^ fi^! V ^ 1 .> ^B ^^1 1 ^ 11 Ma ?* i?

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12 Justice Harry

McCarthy (2nd from

right) at the

inaugural Awards

Ceremony, Gresham

Hotel, Dublin 1955

13 Guest of Honour, Madame Pandid

Nehru, sister of

President Nehru of

India at the 3rd

Awards Ceremony in 1957

14 The first Caltex

(Texaco) Children's

Art Competition Awards Ceremony, Dublin, 1955

15 The 10th Texaco

Children's Art

Awards Ceremony, Dublin, 1964

16 President Mary McAleese and Paul

Martin present Victoria Farnan with

her prize 2004

Modestly playing down his own contribution, Maurice

underlines the importance of Ireland's art teachers in the

whole process. 'Art teachers all over the country were

thrilled to finally see the contribution they were making

being recognised at last. They embraced the whole idea

from the outset and encouraged their pupils to take part in

huge numbers. Leading art experts who stepped into the

breach as adjudicators over the decades included London

based Professor Tomlinson, John Fitzmaurice Mills,

Miche?l O Nuall?in, Nora Roberts, Dermot Larkin, Chris

Ryan, Marion King?to name but a few.

The community at large got involved too, as an exhi

bition of the winning entries has toured through virtu

ally every city and town in Ireland at one time or

another over the past fifty years. In the beginning the

collection was displayed in school halls. Over time, the

significance of these exhibitions grew with their transfer

to new, larger exhibition venues. Typical of these has

been the exhibition held annually at the Ulster Museum

and attended by over 30,000 visitors. Other venues

include the well-known Eigse Carlow Arts Festival, the

Eurochild International Festival in Cork and the Helix

at Dublin City University. Though, at its core, the

Competition remains unchanged, the evolutionary

process is nonetheless alive.

An example of this, is the new association that has

developed between Texaco and UTV in the form of the

UTV/Texaco Young Artist Commission. This new devel

opment derived from an interest by UTV in the Texaco

Children's Art Collection. As their Director of Television,

Alan Bremner comments, 'UTV was so impressed with

the calibre of the entries in the Texaco Children's Art

Competition that we approached them to see if we could

offer the winners a little extra. Together we came up with

the idea of offering the overall winner his or her first com

mercial commission to create a piece for the new UTV

Young Artists Collection. We are delighted to be working

with Texaco to make this happen.' As a result, a ?1,000

commission is offered to the overall winner to produce a

work for permanent exhibition in the prestigious UTV

Collection. The first recipient in 2002 was 15-year-old

Kevin Roche from Gorey Community College.

In recent years, as the Competition attracts some

50,000 entries annually, awareness of the Texaco

Children's Art Competition has reached a new level.

Innovations include an even greater concentration on

promoting the Competition through more intensive mar

keting and by the use o{ new media of which the

In recent years, as the Competition attracts some 50,000 entries annually, awareness of the Texaco Children's Art

Competition has reached a new level

6 I hush AR T s R [ : v i e w s p e c i a l edition

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www.texacoch.iIiirensart.com web site is an example. A key

figure in the management of the event and the person

credited with the development of new marketing and

communications methods now being used to promote

the Competition is the executive responsible for market

ing at Texaco, Bronagh Carr?n. 'Retaining the tradi

tional appeal of the Competition whilst introducing new

techniques to promote it to a young, modern audience

has been one of our greatest challenges,' says Bronagh.

'To this end, we have developed a new logo which is

visually representative of children's art and have placed a

strong emphasis on the use of television and radio adver

tising to promote the Competition to our target audience.

We have also invested more heavily in point-ofsale mate

rials to publicise the Competition through our service

stations,' she said. Looking ahead, Bronagh believes that

the Competition will continue to remain a vibrant part

o? Irish life. 'Already, the 51st Competition is underway.

Beyond that, predictions are meaningless as the original

creators of the Competition have doubtless discovered to

their own pleasant surprise,' Bronagh concluded.

While such innovations will help to promote the

Competition and communicate news of it to an even

wider audience, it is not in new media that the substance

of the Competition will be found. Rather, it is where it

has always been, in the minds of children and in the art

through which they find self-expression.

Therein lies the magic of the Competition, a quality

that has kept it alive and vigorous across the generations.

As the distinguished artist and former prize-winner

Bernadette Madden puts it, 'A wonderful childhood

experience and a magical memory. Children's Art sowed

a seed which encouraged me to develop my artistic talents

at a very young age. Thank you, Texaco'.

children's art

50th Anniversary Celebrations 2004 marks the 50th anniversary of the Competition, a landmark which was

celebrated in great style throughout the year. The celebrations began in April when distinguished past winners attended a luncheon at the RHA Gallagher Gallery in Dublin (see page 16!). Those present, whose early interest in art and the arts may well have been encouraged by their participation in the

Competition, included former Labour Party Leader and Minister for Finance, Ruairi Quinn TD; artists Dorothy Cross, Robert Ballagh and Bernadette

Madden; broadcasters Thelma Mansfield and Terry Prone; novelist Clare

Boylan; musician Ethna Tlnney; aca

demic Eunan O'Halpin, Professor of

Contemporary Irish History at Trinity

College, Dublin; teacher and ASTI

President, Susie Hall and TV3 Political

Correspondent & Current Affairs broad

caster Ursula Halligan. Interviewed by the Irish Times, Ruairi Quinn, who was a prize-winner at the time of the Suez

Crisis, said: 'I won my first Caltex

(Texaco) prize at the age of 10. Then I was doing it (art) without realising I was

good at it. By the time I was a teenager it was central to my life. I painted constantly, right through until I was about

27 or 28.' Speaking on the RT? programme Rattlebag, he added, 'I was for tunate enough to get encouragement from that first award. I won a couple of other awards at different age categories. It had a profound effect on my life and what I subsequently did'.

However, the undisputed highlight of this celebratory year was the

Awards Ceremony?that wonderful day in May when the ballroom of the

Burlington Hotel in Dublin became a hub of excitement, a cauldron of

anticipation, as prize-winners arrived from all parts of Ireland accompa

nied by their parents and guardians to receive their awards from the Guest of Honour, President McAleese.

A special feature of the day was the unveiling by President McAleese of four postage stamps issued by An Post to commemorate this special anniversary. The issue of these postage stamps featuring reproductions of four of this year's winning entries, reflected the affection and respect

which the Irish State and the people of Ireland have for the Texaco Children's Art Competition.

A series of five television advertisements was also produced to mark the 50th anniversary. Through the use of animation, the subject of each stu dent's art work was brought to life to catch the viewer's eye before being cap tured ?n freeze-frame to reveal the finished painting captioned with its title and the artist's name. The five 20-second commercials appeared on ail com

mercial TV channels throughout Ireland.

Other activities included the presentation of twelve paintings to the OPW for

permanent exhibition in Farmleigh, the Department of An Taoiseach, Dublin Zoo and the OPW's Head Office. A television documentary was also commissioned.

The Texaco Children's Art Competition cannot be viewed simply as a com

mercial sponsorship. Rather, it has become an institution in its own right? a part of the fabric of Irish life that has endured and developed across genera tions, a testament to the enduring innocence of childhood and to the power and inventiveness of a child's imagination.

SPECIAL EDITION IRISH ARTS REVIEW |

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