UK Recycling, The Food Connection, & UK Dining are excited to invite all UK students to participate in an art competition focused on UK's local and sustainable food system. The winner will be offered a commission to create an art installation of their design on campus. The competition and installation process aim to highlight student art and educate on UK's efforts to source food locally, support agricultural industries, and minimize food waste.
We are looking for designs that include depictions of the lifecycle of food on campus. Primary focuses should be on UK Dining's local food sourcing efforts and UK's on-campus composting system. Depictions of these themes should be informative, cohesive, and visually appealing. The design should also include people engaging in these processes & systems.
See the Artwork Guidelines for more information on how the submission will be evaluated.
Competition will run February 27th – March 31st, 11:59 p.m.
Submissions will be not be accepted after March 31st. Winners will be contacted by April 14th.
This is a prized competition.
We encourage students to review the resources below to inform their designs.
These overview the University's local food sourcing efforts and on-campus composting system.
UK's Local Food Partners
UK launches new on-campus composting system
Students are welcome to do more research on these processes.
Submissions must be submitted by March 31st at 11:59 p.m.
Submit Your ArtWork
In sustainability, circularity is a waste management approach which reduces waste going to the landfill. It gives materials a new life by repurposing items which would otherwise be trash to help create something new.
No, submissions for the competition should be complete designs.
Yes! If you accept being commissioned to create the portable art installation, submit a design you’d like to scale up to 5 ft by 10 ft. There may be revision requests for your design.
A: Yes, all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students may submit their design.
Yes, and you will still be eligible for the commission.
5 ft. by 10 ft. Ensure that your design is scalable to this size if you would like to be considered for the portable art installation process.
All mediums (digital, painted, drawn, collage, etc.) are eligible except 3D designs as long as they are thematically relevant and scalable to 5 ft by 10ft.
UK Recycling will contact the winners by April 14th. The notification will be sent to the email address provided in the application.
During Summer 2026. The student and UK Recycling will meet to discuss availability, the commission process and other important details after the winners are announced.
A: Yes. We will consider all designs equally!
Yes. As long as they accept and complete the art installation, the winner will also be awarded a commission.
Brief resources related to both themes can be found under Suggested Resources. You are welcome to do further research on your own and/or check out the links below:
UK Dining's 2025 Report: Analysis of UK Dining's Local Procurement Efforts
UK Dining's article: University of Kentucky Dining forges new partnership with local, family-owned farm
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): What is a Circular Economy?
If you have any further questions, please e-mail us at recycle@uky.edu