Featured Event:
2024 Young Artists and Authors Showcase

Each year, the Young Artists Showcase encourages youth from around the globe to express the mission of Sister Cities International through original artwork and literature. The Young Artists Showcase gives us an opportunity to reach out to the community. It enables us to engage local Art and English teachers and reach an audience of public, private and home-schooled students that might not already be included in our Sister City youth programs.

The 2024 first place winner of the local Sister Cities of Hampton Artists Showcase, Joshua Murphy received a $200 prize and his artwork titled “Sanctuary” was entered in the Sister Cities International Showcase to compete for the $1,000 Grand Prize. Murphy is an 11th-grade student at Bethel High School.

Congratulations for rising to the challenge and delivering an incredible work of art that successfully illustrated this year's theme “ClimateScape: Resilient Cities for Tomorrow’s Climate.” 

 
Murphy's artwork "Sanctuary!"

Murphy's artist statement below explains his interpretation of the Young Artists and Authors Showcase theme:

“I wanted to achieve a surreal and dreamlike view of the model. The piece itself represents the resilience of humans and how we have to view life, and ourselves in order to make our cities last. We must treat ourselves well and flourish before we can help anyone else. The colors of the piece represent the diversity of our cities; the many different colors and looks that all come together to make a community. The flora around the flowers represent the many different parts that come together to make a city alive while small and still beautiful in their own right. The lighting was chosen to incite a feeling of growth, the sunlight actively feeding the flowers showing that as long as you have a positive outlook and put in the work the cities will flourish. The flowers are tangled in the models hair to represent that these cities are her upbringing they are a part of what makes her herself. While the model herself is drawn in a way to make her look like she is looking at the horizon longingly hoping that her life and city will last threatened by global warming. While the high and large clouds in the background represent increasing weather conditions, the buildings contrast them; showing the green and sustainable future life that we should strive for. The model looks forward, imagining a safe and sustainable city. She is hopeful that this dream of hers can become a sanctuary.”

Scheduled Events
for 2023-24

50th Anniversary and the Anyang’s Annual International Student Art Exhibition
September 18, 2023
Hampton Delegation to
Anyang, South Korea

Annual Meeting
September 28, 2023
Pinewood Plaza, Suite 100
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Executive Board Meeting
January 25, 2024
Pinewood Plaza, Suite 100
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

South Africa Children's Book Drive
TBA