A brand new art contest held by CV Arts and BC Pond Hockey is offering Columbia Valley artists the chance to have their work used for the 2013 BC Eastern Regional Pond Hockey Championships’ official logo.

While the first annual Lake Windermere Pond Hockey tournament isn’t being held until February 3 to 5, 2012, area artists are being encouraged to begin conceptualizing their outdoor Lake Windermere winter scenes in 2D wall art and video formats for the Centre Ice Art Contest. While only 2D pieces will be eligible for use in the official logo, all forms of entry will be displayed at Pynelogs Arts Centre in Invermere the week prior to the tournament’s starting date.

“The CV Arts Council is trying very hard to bring more culture to the community, and in different forms,” said Jami Scheffer, CV Arts manager and administrator. “When I heard the pond hockey tournament was coming to town it just made sense to try and partner with them to bring some culture to  the tournament.”

The deadline for submissions will be on January 13, and the winning pieces will be determined via online voting on bcpondhockey.com and ballots cast at Pynelogs.

All submissions will be shown at the tournament website and facebook page, as well as at Pynelogs in the week leading up to the tournament.

Entries should be centred around Lake Windermere winter scenes, with activities such as ice skating, skiing, pond hockey, cycling, ice fishing and other outdoor winter recreational activities being offered as suggestions.

“I really liked the idea of combining recreation and art,” Scheffer said. “It’s all about bringing people to the valley and providing a little something for everyone.”

Two-dimensional submissions must be original one-of-a-kind pieces, and are asked to be properly framed and/or ready to be hung. For video and digital art submissions, pieces should be about two minutes long and must be submitted in high-quality on either DV tape, DVD or a high-quality .avi file on CD or DVD, and must be able to be viewed on a standard television. Compressed internet videos or youtube videos will not be considered high quality and as such will not be accepted. Additionally, a title and medium are asked to be included with all pieces, and a description (written or otherwise) is optional.

For for information and entry forms contact the Cv Arts Council at 250-342-4423.