The Golden Turtle International Creative Competition boasts a record number of participants from 92 countries
The Golden Turtle International Photography, Art and Design Competition is a creative contest within the framework of the Golden Turtle International Wildlife Festival. This prestigious competition attracts authors from all over the world, showcasing their projects on the beauty of wildlife since 2006.
After the first ten years the Contest archive already includes more than 100 000 works sent in by thousands of authors from 130 countries. And in 2017, the Golden Turtle International Competition took a big step forward, setting a few new records.
"I want to sincerely congratulate the team and all the participants of the Festival with the completion of the preliminary stage of the creative competitions! On June 30, exactly at midnight GMT, the system automatically closed the enrollment, preventing the authors from further uploading images into their online profiles. The first results can be rightfully considered an indicator of the increased popularity and importance of the competition internationally. This year we have received artwork from a record number of authors - 2,555, representing 92 countries, with the number of both Russian and foreign participants significantly increased. These figures show that the new team managed to breathe new energy into the project and give it a powerful impetus for further development, "said the President of the Golden Turtle Festival and the founder of the My Equator Charity Fund Andrei Soukhinine.
The geography of the Golden Turtle International Competition has expanded in 2017 adding Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bhutan, Guatemala, Congo, Costa Rica, Macedonia, Oman, Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Sudan to the list of participating countries. Traditionally, the authors from China (224 people), India (99 people), Iran (97 people), Spain (91 people) and France (62 people) were the most active in submitting artwork.
1,895 photographers from 81 countries entered the Natural Photography Competition. On average, by the number of photographs per author, foreigners are ahead with 5.5 against 5.3 works per Russian author. The most popular among the participants were the "Landscape", the "Animal Portrait" and the " Animal Behavior " nominations.
The amount of authors in the Design Competition has more than doubled compared to the last peak, and the number of submitted artwork has tripled. By the number of artwork sent, Asia is in the lead among regions – comprising 64.12% of all design projects.
The number of countries participating in the Art Competition increased by 35%, with the amount of artwork submitted increased by 31%. Russia is leading by the number of sent in paintings, followed by the Middle East and Western Europe.
According to Andrei Soukhinine, the next stage of the preliminary selection will last until the end of July. In accordance with the new rules published on the site, it will be carried out by the members of the international Jury of Peers comprised of the previous years’ finalists. For example, a team of 36 judges representing Belgium, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Indonesia, Spain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, France and Sweden will evaluate the photos submitted for the competition. Based on the vote, the system will automatically compile a list of top 100 works in each nomination and send out notices to the authors about advancing into the semi-finals. “I look forward to the selection results and believe that the qualitative indicators of the contest will pleasantly surprise us as well, since there are true gems hidden in the authors’ online profiles now, just waiting to be discovered!”, - said the President of the Festival.
The works of the laureates are annually exhibited at the “Golden Turtle” International Wildlife Festival. This year it will be held from October 14 to November 5 in Moscow and from November 10 to 23 in St. Petersburg. The award ceremony for the winners will take place at the Expocentre on Krasnaya Presnya on October 13, 2017.
Since 2016, the “Golden Turtle” International Wildlife Festival is organized by the “My Equator” Charity Fund, adding a charitable component to the concept of the project: all proceeds from the sale of tickets and souvenirs, including artwork albums, benefit children with life-threatening conditions.
Reference
The “Golden Turtle” International Wildlife Festival
The “Golden Turtle” International Wildlife Festival is the largest cultural eco-education project in the world, one of the largest photo exhibitions devoted to wildlife. “Golden Turtle” gives photographers, artists and designers an opportunity to share their artwork with the public, sharing and protecting the beauty of the world around us. "Golden Turtle" is a series of creative competitions, the winners of which are exhibited at the Wildlife Festival. In 2017, the Festival will be held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, Kazan and Rostov-on-Don.
The Festival combines various creative activities dedicated to the protection of the environment and the conservation of rare and endangered species of animals. The "Golden Turtle" Festival is the only official event in Russia held within the framework of the United Nations Decade for the Conservation of Biodiversity. More than 130 countries participating, more than 10 000 authors, more than 100 000 works and more than 5 000 000 visitors around the world comprise the scope of the “Golden Turtle”. In 10 years the Festival has become the largest in the world by the number of participating countries, and one of the most visited expositions in Russia.
The “Golden Turtle” International Wildlife Festival 2017 is the official event within the Year of Ecology in Russia.
The MY EQUATOR Charity Fund
The MY EQUATOR Charity Fund is the holder of rights for organizing and operating the “Golden Turtle” International Wildlife Festival. All proceeds of the Festival are directed to finance life-saving surgery for children, 1 to 18 years old, suffering from serious diseases, including congenital heart defects of varying complexity.
The name of the Fund is no accident: for many children the surgery serves as the equator between sickness and health. And main goal of the fund is to raise money to help them safely cross it.
The Fund has held several successful charitable events aimed not only at fundraising, but also at the education of children, the popularization of creative activity and wildlife protection awareness.
For more information, please go to the Festival’s Official page
For more information, please contact:
Kristina Korneeva
PR-director of the Festival
K.korneeva@wnfest.ru
+7 (911) 217-37-32