2025 YOUNG ARTISTS AND AUTHORS SHOWCASE (YAAS)
Friendship: The Heartbeat of Global Peace.

Sister Cities of Long Beach holds an annual competition, YAAS, to encourage young artists to express the values of international friendship and cultural exchange through artwork, photography, music, literature, and poetry. Winner’s submissions will advance to the Sister Cities International global competition.

This year’s theme is “Friendship: The Heartbeat of Global Peace.” The theme highlights the power of friendship to foster understanding, collaboration, and peace across borders. The Showcase provides a unique platform to explore how global friendships can drive positive change and bridge cultural divides.

Share your vision of a peaceful world and contribute to the international dialogue about the importance of building friendships across nations

Register Here! Let us know you are interested!

Submission Deadline: April 1, 2025

  • Students must be between 12 and 18 years of age at the time of the 2025 deadline.
  • Student entries must be submitted through Sister Cities of Long Beach.
  • All entries must conform to Sister Cities of Long Beach policy on plagiarism found here.
  • All entries must be submitted and received with a completed application by the deadline. Submit entries by uploading them along with the application below.
  • No student may enter submissions into more than one category.
  • Submission categories:
      1. Classic Art
      2. Digital Art
      3. Photography
      4. Original Music
      5. Literature
      6. Poetry
  • Photographs of all artists’ work (in the case of the Musicians Showcase, artists’ names and names of the pieces) will be published to Sister Cities of Long Beach website.
  • The local 1st place winner for each category wins $250.
  • The local 2nd place winner for each category wins $150.
  • The local 3rd place winner for each category wins $100.
  • Local winning entries will be submitted to the International Competition.
  • Each International category’s Grand Prize Winner will receive $1,000.
  • Each International category’s 2nd Place Winner will receive $500.
  • Each International category’s 3rd Place Winner will receive $250.
  • International winners will be announced at the Youth Leadership Summit.

International winners will be required to send framed versions of their original artwork to the Sister Cities International National Office in Washington, DC, at their own expense. Further details will be shared with winners in early summer 2025. The winning artwork will also be featured on the Sister Cities International website after the announcement.

ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE MADE IN ENGLISH

Application Starts Soon!