Milwaukee Public Museum
Poetry Competition - 2013
Objects and Artifacts—the Poetry of the Museum’s
Collections
From its earliest days as an institution of human history, paleontology, zoology, botany,
geology and anthropology, MPM has collected and preserved artifacts, specimens and objects of
all descriptions from around the world. Today the Museum’s collections include more than four
million objects—everything from butterflies and arrowheads, fossils and antique automobiles,
to snowshoes and typewriters and the famous Hebior Mammoth skeleton. To celebrate this vast
and intriguing collection, the Museum is sponsoring its fifth annual poetry competition for
Wisconsin students.
Due to the vast number of objects in our collections, and the success of last year’s competition,
the theme this year is once again “Objects and Artifacts—the Poetry of the Museum’s
Collections,” and the competition is open to all Wisconsin students from grades 3-12.
Students are encouraged to choose a favorite item from the Museum’s collections and write a
poem about it. Students may be inspired by a visit to the Museum where they can wander our
world-renowned exhibits, or explore a virtual selection of artifacts online at
For details contact Richard Hedderman at (414) 278-2718 or
hedderman@mpm.edu.
Contest Details
Theme:
Objects and Artifacts-the Poetry of the Museum’s Collections
Deadline:
April 19, 2013
Who is eligible:
The competition is open to all Wisconsin students in the following three grade
categories: Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, and Grades 9-12.
Criteria:
Entries will be judged on creativity, originality, imagery, artistic quality, and sense of
poetic expression.
Awards:
Winning poems will be exhibited in the Museum, and published on the Museum’s
web-site. The winners will also be invited to read their poems at the Museum on International
Museum Day, Saturday, May 18
th, 2013. A certificate of achievement and additional prizes will
be awarded at the reading.
How to Enter:
Send submissions by
regular mail only.
All submissions must be received by April 30, 2012.
*NO EMAIL SUBMISSIONS, PLEASE.
Mail to:
MPM Poetry Competition
Richard Hedderman, Education Section
800 W. Wells Street
Milwaukee, WI 53233-1478
Submission Details
•
Submissions will be accepted from the following three categories ONLY: Grades
3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.
•
All submissions must be word-processed and double-spaced.
•
Poems may not exceed 30 lines.
•
All submissions must show the student’s name and grade level at the top right
corner of the page. The name of the school, the moderating teacher’s name and
e-mail address and school phone number must appear at the top right corner of
the page.
•
Each poem must have a title. Please indicate, either in the title or in a subtitle,
which artifact is the subject of the poem.
•
Poetry must be the original work of the student and may not have been
previously published anywhere.
•
Please avoid: decorative fonts, illustrations and colored paper which make
submissions more difficult to read.
•
NOTE: Each poem should focus on an artifact or specimen in the collection of the
Milwaukee Public Museum. Poems about entire exhibits, galleries or general
themes will not be considered.
•
We are sorry, but we cannot return original entries or comment on submissions.
•
Teachers will be notified by e-mail or phone if their students have won.
A word about the Museum’s collections
The Milwaukee Public Museum engages curiosity, excites the imagination and encourages the
preservation and protection of our world's natural and cultural diversity. One of the ways we do this
is through our collection of over four million artifacts and natural specimens from around the globe.
It is often the things around us that hold the secrets and wonders of life, inspiring people of all ages
to keep learning, turn over more stones and ask the never-ending question: What can we discover
next?
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