Ottawa – July 8, 2015 – The Ottawa Geek Market is proud to announce the creation of the Ottawa Geek Market Arts Scholarship; a scholarship devoted to recognizing and rewarding youth from Eastern Ontario who have a passion for comic books, science-fiction, fantasy, gaming, anime, or horror.
“We’ve supported a different charitable focus at each of our previous festivals, and this time we wanted to show our support to the local community in a more interactive and personal way by helping geeky art students cover some of their tuition fees,” said Lindsay Sherman, Vice-President of the Ottawa Geek Market.
“The main characters in the second Back to the Future movie travel through time to October 2015, which inspired us to come up with a ‘future’ element to our next festival. And what a better way to support the future of our favourite fandoms than supporting local artists who might, one day, work on one of these fandoms, or create a new one for us to enjoy?” Ms. Sherman continued.
The Geek Market is offering one $1,000 scholarship in each of the following categories: costuming, traditional/2-dimensional art, and sculpture. The scholarship is open to all grade 12 students in Eastern Ontario who will be graduating from high school in 2016 and who’ll be attending a post-secondary program in 2016.
The deadline for applications is August 21st, 2015 and finalists will have the opportunity to display their art pieces on site at the festival taking place October 3rd and 4th, 2015, at the Nepean Sportsplex. Winners will be announced during a ceremony on October 4th.
A portion of all admission sales will go towards funding the scholarship program. Additionally, 100% of the silent auction funds raised at the festival will be split between the three scholarship winners and donated to their respective schools to purchase arts supplies.
The October festival will be the sixth instalment of the National Capital Region’s largest geek festival which continues to grow in size and popularity. Since its inception in 2012, the festival has proudly raised more than $26,000 for local charities, donated more than $14,000 in admission tickets, and welcomed 15,800 patrons. The festival will be taking place in conjunction with the Capital Gaming Expo.
For more information about the Ottawa Geek Market, please visit www.geekmarket.ca.
-30-
Media Inquiries
Marie Victoria Robertson
Scholarship Coordinator
[email protected]
613-252-8446
