The 2022 Toyota Dream Car Art Contest returned strong after a coronavirus pandemic imposed hiatus with a healthy entry count as the competition date came to a close on February 28.

“This is the most applicants we’ve ever had since we started so it’s encouraging,” said Tom Connor, managing director, Toyota Jamaica Limited.

According to Tracy-Ann Fletcher, assistant marketing manager, Toyota Jamaica Limited, entries surpassed the 140 mark.

“We had a total of 161 entries for 2022,” said Fletcher.

The Toyota Dream Car Art Contest is targeted at students in three age brackets. There have been two main changes to the competition, the first due to the ongoing pandemic. Gone is the all-expense paid trip to Japan for the competition’s global finals, replaced by a prize package for the student and their school of US$5,000 and US$10,000 respectively. There is also a local component for the top three winners in each age category. They will not only have their artwork sent on to the global phase of the contest, but share in a prize pool of J$135,000. All nine will receive tablets courtesy Toyota Jamaica and the school with the most entries will get a special prize.

Connor is one of the seven judges now tasked in choosing the top three winners in each category in time for the March 14 global competition entry deadline. As a veteran of the contest, he joins Howard Foster, branch manager, Old Hope Road — Toyota Jamaica Limited, Sean Henry — Artist, Chad Hammond — Artist, Taynia Nethersole — Attorney-at-Law, Tami and Wayne Mitchell — Toyota Jamaica brand ambassadors.

The 2022 theme for the contest is My Dream Car — Draw your Dream, Drive the Future.

“There’s a lot that’s reflecting what’s going on in the world. The pandemic has been certainly shown in the artwork here,” explained Connor.

The idea of the contest is to spark children’s imagination through art and first time judge Hammond, was impressed with the outlay.

“It’s good to see the creativity coming from the kids and that art is still a universal language of expressions. You have some very good ideas coming out,” Hammond said.

Tami Mitchell held a similar sentiment as she was also a new judge.

“I’m just glad to see so much creativity coming forward. Seeing that kids are really thinking outside of the box and I just love that they have the opportunity to just kind of let their imagination run wild,” she said.

And run wild their imaginations did. Amongst the colourful entries lay simple ideas, from cars that can drive underwater, to those that could shoot slime from its eyes, to cars that could do anything. As Connor explained, children have not been immune from the happenings in the world leading to vehicles that generated peace, saves lives, cleans up pollution, restores the planet, and even create friendships and wealth.

The second change for the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest was the provision for computer generated artwork, for those that use digital art creation tools. From the entry numbers this has yet to be a popular option locally.

“We’d love to get someone that can get to the finals, and with the quality we’re seeing I don’t see why not,” said Connor.

Jamaica’s best finish in the competition came in 2017 as eleven-year-old Athalia Clarke, a Queen’s Prep School student, made the top 30 of the global finalists with her piece The Leaf Car.

– Rory Daley