The Danube River basin is home to 83 million people with a wide range of cultures, languages and historical backgrounds. Held each year since 2004 to celebrate Danube Day, this ambitious competition unites children across the region. The challenge for pupils aged 12 to 16 is to create their own 'environmental art' inspired by the Danube and its tributaries. Jointly organised by GWP Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), the competition encourages children to visit their local rivers and consider what the river ecosystem means to them. In line with the aims of Danube Day, the competition motivates children to create a vision for the Danube that meets the needs of its diverse multi-national people and wildlife. In 2011, more than 15,000 children from 436 schools took part in this contest.
Awareness of the environment created through art
Raising awareness among young people and their teachers about the vital importance of the Danube Basin is the main aim of the annual Danube Art Master competition. Each child and school in the basin, covering 19 European countries, is invited to create a threedimensional work of art from material found near water, such as plants, shells, mud, grass and waste.