By John Disque

Every year for the past eight years, "The Art Institutes," in partnership with "Americans For The Arts," holds an annual poster-design contest. The contest is centered on "design-minded" creative students from the US and Canada, and the competition is open to all high school seniors.

The theme of your poster should say "Life Is Better With Art In It". Everything else is up to you, the artist.

"Every year the competition is a further success and every year the entries get more creative and inspired," says John Mozzoni, President Of The Art Institutes. Robert Lunch, President and CEO of Americans For The Arts, adds, "The pieces are not only vibrant and exciting, but a great reminder of how much art can touch us in our everyday lives."

This could be the ticket for an underprivileged student who cannot afford to further their education and is searching for an opportunity to focus their future on their true talents.

The winner of this competition gets a full tuition scholarship to one of the 45 Art Institute Schools.

What is the value of the scholarship? I went to the Art Institutes' website and began the enrollment process to see what tuition would cost for an associate degree at the Nashville school in the subject of graphic design. Here's the result: You would need 96 credits. It would cost $486.00 per credit. Tuition per quarter would be $7,776.00. The total tuition would be $46,656.00.

It's time to get busy, students. The deadline for entries is February 4, 2011.

For more about the Poster Design Competition visit www.artinstitutes.edu

How valuable is an art degree? Below is a list of the companies who hire from The Art Institutes. They include high paying jobs in many different fields, all of them utilizing the artist's talent.

Published December 30, 2010