Why We Create
The Holocaust had a catastrophic effect on European art. Jewish artists perished in death camps and suffered trauma from religious and social persecution. Leaving their art vulnerable to destruction and looting, artists were forced to abandon their homes to flee their homeland; much artwork was destroyed, burned, or looted between 1933 and 1945.
In remembrance of those lost works, we host an arts education program teaching how to approach genocide studies. The Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center’s annual Holocaust through the Arts Program engages middle and high school students from all around Rhode Island in learning about the Holocaust through interpretive practices such as theater, film, and music.
Each year, the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center connects with, and educates, over 2,000 Rhode Island students in our Holocaust through the Arts Program.
The deadline for the Art & Writing contest is May 20th, 2026.
This year’s contest theme is “Beyond Silence: Stories that Endure”
Six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, but Jews found ways to break the silence even in the darkest times. Some, like Anne Frank, wrote diaries that gave voice to their daily fears and hopes. Others whispered routes of escape, smuggled food, or secretly passed news. Partisans in the Warsaw Ghetto and elsewhere organized uprisings, refusing to let their voices and resistance be erased. After the war, survivors who had endured these experiences began to speak out, preserving memory and bearing witness so the world would never forget.
These are just a few examples of how silence was broken. Students are encouraged to interpret the theme in their own way, through the voices, stories, or acts of courage that speak most powerfully to them.
Please create a two-dimensional work of visual art (any medium: collage, paint, digital, etc.) that is no larger than 10”x 10” and/or write a poem or essay (maximum length: one page) with the theme of Beyond Silence: The Voices that Endure. Entrants should select a work of Holocaust literature, testimony, or art, and using either the title or a significant word or phrase, demonstrate through poetry, visual art, or an essay how lived stories deepen our understanding of the Holocaust.
Works of art should be accompanied by a description of who or what inspired the piece and the elements that you feel are relevant to our understanding. All work should be titled.
In addition to awards being given to some individual submissions, each school will be judged on its entire body of submissions, and the judges will choose one school as the winner. The winning school will have its student submissions (up to twenty, chosen by the judges) turned into an exhibit that can be displayed as a means of educating the larger school community.
Students may also enter independently of class or school.
How to Submit:
Please submit your work, along with the completed permission slip (download and fill out), by mail to: 401 Elmgrove Ave, Providence, RI 02906 or scan it and email it to info@hercri.org
Past Exhibitions
