Vans is thrilled to announce Fontainebleau High School – Mandeville, LA, as the winner of the twelfth annual Vans Custom Culture competition. Vans High School Custom Culture was created to inspire and empower high school students to embrace their creativity through art and design and bring attention to diminishing art education budgets.
Photo – Vans archive ©
After twelve years, Vans continues its dedication to give back to the arts through its competition giving students a chance to win $50,000 to benefit their school’s art program. Over 1,000 schools across the country entered and were asked to use Vans as their canvas and apply their creativity to Vans footwear, using the themes “Hometown Pride” and “Head in the Clouds”. In addition to the grand prize won by Fontainebleau High School, the four runner-up schools will each receive $15,000 for their respective art programs and an artist mentorship lesson from one of Vans’ art ambassadors: Kelly Breez, Robin Eisenberg, Jay Howell, Todd Francis, Olivia Krause, Camilo Medina, Noah Humes, O.J. Hays, Tony Whlgn, or Sydney James.
Grand Prize Winner:
Fontainebleau High School – Mandeville, LA
Runners Up:
Secaucus High School – Secaucus, NJ
Edison High School – San Antonio, TX
Cedar Hill High School – Cedar Hill, TX
Temple City High School – Temple City, CA
“Congratulations to Fontainebleau High School and all the schools that entered this year’s competition. Creativity took on a whole new meaning this year as students were forced inside. The problem-solving and innovation shown by teachers and students to come together to create these wonderful designs are truly inspiring,” said Carly Gomez, Vans VP of Marketing, The Americas. “Reviewing this year’s submissions from bright young artists across the country were tougher than ever and a true testament to the importance and power of creativity even while we were all physically apart this past year.”
After receiving both physical and digital submissions, it’s evident that this year’s winners were collaborative, innovative and dedicated to show the world their art no matter the obstacle.
Thank you to our partners for empowering this competition, including Yoobi, Vans’ exclusive arts supplies partner who provided gift cards to all the participating schools in order for them to purchase much-needed art supplies, Scholarship America for community-based scholarship programs and Journeys who awarded all participating students a gift card to their store in recognition of their accomplishments.
Since its inception in 2021, Vans Custom Culture has reached hundreds of thousands of students, donating over $1,110,000 USD back into high school art programs nationwide.
