LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Students will soon get another chance to see their artwork on the Exosphere.
On Tuesday, Sphere officials announced they are back with the second annual Sphere XO Student Design Challenge.
This time, instead of a patriotic theme, students are creating designs around Earth Day, which is also when the winning designs will be unveiled.
The contest is open to more than 100,000 students that are based in Clark County. Their ages range from elementary school through college.
Elementary and middle school students will create their artwork on a 2D drawing of Sphere while select high school and UNLV students will be given a VR headset and custom design tools to create their art.
WATCH: UNLV, CCSD students use VR to create art submissions for Sphere challenge
For the final judging and public voting process, Clark County School District administrators will select 90 students to represent the district while all 30 participants from UNLV will also submit their work.
The final 120 submissions will be digitized and posted on Sphere's website where the public can vote for their favorites.
The winners will be revealed on April 22, 2025.
Four winners will be chosen by the general public and four winners will be chosen by a panel of judges.
Elementary and middle school students that win will receive a $10,000 donation from Sphere for their school's art program and their school will receive tickets to attend the Sphere Experience.
High school and college students that win will receive a $10,000 scholarship from Sphere.
"Our schools are once again looking forward to participating in the Student Design Challenge," said Dr. Bradley Keating, Assistant Superintendent of Community Partnerships and Government Relations at CCSD. "It was inspiring to see how last year's contest engaged students across the district, and the donation from Sphere to the winning schools' art programs continues to benefit art education in our classrooms. We're proud to be part of this initiative and its continued positive impact on Las Vegas' youngest artists."
I spoke with Jim Dolan, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sphere Entertainment, when the inaugural winners were announced on the Fourth of July.
WATCH: Las Vegas students have their artwork displayed on the Exosphere
He said the company hopes this will spark creativity and encourage students to look at more STEM careers.
"Hopefully, what we're doing is inspiring them to study science and math. Math is a big piece," Dolan said. "We are proud that through the XO Student Design Challenge, we were able to leverage Sphere's technology and use this digital canvas to further artistic expression from Las Vegas' student artists."
Those thoughts were echoed by Jen Koester, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Sphere.
"If we think about the history behind Sphere, it's always been about innovation and it's always been about the intersection of art and science," Koester said. "To find an opportunity to bring that to the community was really a lot of the thinking behind this."
You can learn more about the second annual XO Student Design Challenge here.
