Chicago students create standout art for HIV/AIDS art, literacy contest

CHICAGO Nearly 700 high school students representing 51 different Chicago schools entered the 2009 Walgreens Expression Against HIV/AIDS Art & Literacy Contest, which invited students to send in their artistic responses to the disease. This year’s formats included rap songs, poetry booklets, three-dimensional artwork and oil paintings.

Orchestrated by John Gremer, director community affairs for Walgreens, with the assistance of Chicago Bears Rashied Davis and Kevin Payne, presented awards to finalists during a special press conference Tuesday at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Gremer, who has hosted the contest for the third consecutive year for Walgreens and is a former Chicago Public Schools instructor, said he was taken aback by the caliber of entries.

“This year’s submissions have really set the standard in terms of talent and creativity,” said Gremer. “I am more than proud of the students who entered the contest.  We have three grand-prize winners [today] and nine finalists, but really, they’re all winners.”

Also in attendance were representatives from contest partners CPS, the Chicago Dept. of Public Health and True Star magazine.

In addition to the $1,000 cash awards, the three grand-prize winners also will be included in the Walgreens Winners Circle, which is a feature in TrueStar Magazine, and an interview on radio station Power 92 FM. The schools that encouraged the grand-prize winners to enter the contest also received a $1,000 cash award. Nine semi-finalists received a $100 Walgreens gift card and the first 200 entrants received a $10 gift card.