DES MOINES — Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig is encouraging school-aged Iowa students to participate in the 2024 Choose Iowa Calendar Contest hosted by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Choose Iowa is the state’s signature brand for Iowa grown, Iowa raised and Iowa made products.

Submitted artwork should feature at least one aspect of Iowa agriculture, with an emphasis on food, livestock or crop production. Submissions will be judged on creativity and connections to agriculture in everyday life. Entries are due June 3, 2024, and winners will be announced at the 2024 Iowa State Fair.

“The Choose Iowa Calendar Contest is a fun way to showcase the importance of Iowa agriculture to all consumers while also recognizing some of our state’s most creative and artistic students,” said Secretary Naig. “We invite all students from across Iowa to submit their art for a chance to have it published in our popular statewide Choose Iowa calendar.”

Secretary Naig will recognize the winning artists during a special awards ceremony on Tuesday, August 13 in the Agriculture Building at the 2024 Iowa State Fair. Winning submissions will also be included in the 2024/2025 Choose Iowa calendar distributed by the Department during the Iowa State Fair and online at ChooseIowa.com.

School-aged Iowa students up to 18-years-old are invited to participate in the contest. Pictures should be drawn on plain white, 8.5 by 11-inch paper in a horizontal orientation using only black lines. The pictures should not be colored in. For creative inspiration, previous calendars may be viewed here.

Entries can be submitted via the form found on the Choose Iowa website, emailed to chooseiowa@iowaagriculture.gov or mailed to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Attn: Coloring Calendar, 502 E. 9th St., Des Moines, Iowa, 50319. Each submission should include the registration sheet also found at chooseiowa.com/kids-teachers with basic information about the artist, including the artist’s name, age, grade, school, hometown as well as the name, email and phone number of a parent or guardian. If the artwork is submitted by the student’s teacher, then the teacher’s name and contact information should be included.

To be eligible for consideration, artwork submissions must be received by the Department by June 3, 2024.