2022 – Pacifica I

PAC Gallery /

Art Exhibition

Category #1 Winner

Category #2 Winner

3 Dimensional

Digital Category

Click for more Art

PACIFICA Insurance Underwriters Inc. concluded its 10th Annual Pacifica Art Contest or PAC on Monday, Oct.16 with a total of 191 art entries.

For the first time in the history of PAC, there were repeat winners for not one but two categories.

2022 PAC traditional category one winner and student of Grace Christian Academy En Mei Victoria Huang secured another win this year for the same category.

2022 PAC digital category winner Tricia Palacios from Mount Carmel School also secured the top spot this year for the same category.

Freshman student from Saipan Southern High School Yu Rong Jiang bagged the traditional category two.

Pacifica Insurance brought back its original art contest theme “Rest assured, it’s Christmas” after temporarily shifting its focus towards lifting the spirits of the people of the Marianas post-Super Typhoon Yutu and during the covid-19 global pandemic between the contest years 2018 and 2022.

“There was an explosion of colors and vibrancy found in every piece entered this year to help us usher in the holiday season and Christmas. We are excited for the awesome turnout and could not be more grateful to the many talents who took part in making our 10th Annual PAC a great success,” said Pacifica Insurance President and CEO Shirley Sablan “The purpose of PAC is to nurture and support local talent and the arts and with over 2,000 entries since holding our first contest back in 2014, we feel we have accomplished just that, and we have countless individuals to thank for its success. To celebrate 10 years of art, we recently introduced an online art exhibition which we named The PAC Gallery to ensure that enjoyment will be at the palm of your hands and in every mobile device and personal computer.”

The PAC Gallery which can be found on www.pacificains.com/artcontest will house and archive top placing artworks starting from year 2014. It will also feature participating artists, contest judges, and educators in the field of art, and will be the permanent home for PAC where details about upcoming contests can be found. Although the company continues to develop and add content to the Gallery with the help of Turnkey Solutions, it is now live and accessible.

The three judges for this year’s art contest were CNMI Public School System math teacher and the State Teacher of the Year Donovan Tudela, Northern Marianas Humanities Council program manager Naomi Tudela, and PSS Mental Health Program social media specialist Julia Espino.

“This year’s submissions were absolutely phenomenal! The spirit of Christmas is definitely here and I am so proud of the artists and the fantastic artwork they have created,” said Donovan Tudela.

“The Pacifica Art Contest is a celebration of imagination that allows our local young artists to shine, where their talents are recognized, validated, and spread cheer throughout our community,” said Naomi Tudela.

“As one of the judges for the 10th Annual Pacifica Art Contest this year, I must say it was an honor to be part of the process. The incredible work of our young artists and their interpretations of the theme, 'Rest Assured, It's Christmas," left a lasting impact. Each artwork had its own story, providing us with a glimpse into what Christmas means to our young, talented artists. I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Pacifica for marking a decade of hosting this contest and inspiring our youth to go above and beyond their artistic abilities when they enter this contest,” said Julia Espino.

CNMI schools with participating artists included Sinapalo Elementary School, Dr. Rita Hocog Inos Jr/Sr High School, Saipan Community School, Mount Carmel School, Grace Christian Academy, Marianas High School, Saipan Southern High School, Dandan Middle School, Saipan International School, Saipan Seventh Day Adventist School, Green Meadows School, William S. Reyes Elementary School, Garapan Elementary School, San Vicente Elementary School, Oleai Elementary School, Hopwood Middle School, Francisco M. Sablan Middle School, and Agape Christian School.

Categories

This year’s PAC had three separate categories: traditional category 1 for ages 6-11, traditional category 2 for ages 12-17, and the digital category which was open to all ages.

There were 98 entries for traditional category 1, 75 entries for traditional category 2, and 18 entries for the digital category in this year’s art contest.

Mediums allowed for the traditional categories were pen, paint, pencil, charcoal, oil pastel, crayons, and marker.

The digital category was open for photographs, 30-second-long videos, and two-dimensional art in jpg, png and pdf formats.

Winners will receive cash and other prizes.

Artworks will be displayed on the second floor of the Pacifica Insurance at the Joeten building in Susupe until January 9, 2024.

Some of the pieces will be randomly featured on the company’s Instagram and Facebook social media pages and top placing pieces can be viewed on The PAC Gallery.

Winning artworks will be used on various marketing materials, which will include print and social media still photos and video promotional ads.

The staff and management of Pacifica Insurance wishes everyone an enjoyable and safe holiday season!

ENCOURAGING health and safety above all else, Pacifica Insurance Underwriters, Inc. launched its 9th Annual Pacifica Art Contest earlier this year with the theme “Living Covid-19 Safe” which gathered a total of 177 entries from artists residing in Saipan and Rota.

Participants of this year’s Contest were able to submit artwork for competitive entry in either the traditional, digital or three-dimensional categories. The digital and three-dimensional categories were added last year to allow flexibility for the creation of artwork through digital applications/software and those built in a three-dimensional format with the use of clay, wood and related mediums. The goal of the Contest with the added categories was to expand opportunities and to incentivize artists to think outside of the box and allow creative flexibility.

Placing first in their respective categories were Grace Christian Academy’s Victoria En Mei Huang for traditional category one, Marianas High School’s Alyssa Kim for traditional category two, Mount Carmel School’s Trish Palacios for the digital category and Saipan Community School’s Daniel Nae for the three-dimensional category.

Contest judges included Mind2Muscle owner Cherese Palacios, Allstar/Boarderline manager Sidney Quan and Turnkey Solutions managing partner Jerry Lin.

“As is the case each year, we are once again, blown away by the level of talent that continues to exceed expectations during this year’s Pacifica Art Contest. We are extremely grateful for the overwhelming rate of participation by our talented local artists and for the continued support of teachers and school administrators throughout the CNMI who have been instrumental in the success of this art program since it was first established 9 years ago,” said company president and CEO Shirley Sablan. “Special thanks to Jerry Lin, Sidney Quan and Cherese Palacios for accepting to take on the most difficult task of judging and we could not be more pleased with the outcome,”

Special messages from the judges

“It was an honor to judge the Annual Pacifica Art Contest and definitely a memorable experience to see how talented our future generation will be.” — Sidney Quan

"Judging the Pacifica Art contest was extremely difficult and emotional for me. Although I did not know the story behind each artwork, creativity is never a competition in my eyes — all these kids are true winners! Thank you, Shirley, Dionne, and the entire PIUI team for the opportunity." — Cherese Palacios

"It was an honor to be part of the Pacifica Art Contest. I was so impressed by the imagination and creativity of our youth. All the pieces told a unique story and it was tough to pick the winners. To all the contestants, congratulations and continue doing great things!" — Jerry Lin

All entries were judged based on their creativity and originality, quality of artwork, clarity of theme, and overall presentation.

The traditional category mediums included pen, paint, charcoal, oil pastel, crayons, and color pencil.

The digital category allowed artists to submit artwork produced through a digital application. It may be submitted as a graphic layout, photograph or short video.

The 3-Dimensional category allowed artists to submit an art piece in physical 3D produced with the use of clay, wood, metal and related materials.

The traditional annual art exhibition of all art entries is now open to the general public at the Pacifica Insurance office located at the Joeten Center in Susupe. They will also be used on all holiday marketing materials to further promote winning artists.

Top placing art entries will also be made available online at www.pacificains.com/artcontest by December. You may also find them on Pacifica’s Facebook and Instagram social media pages. Stay tuned for a new online digital art exhibit of current and past winning art pieces, which will be launched by the end of the year.

Pacifica Art Contest is a visual arts competition designed to nurture and support local talent and the arts. Over 2,000 artworks have been entered in this Contest since 2014.

For more information, call (670) 234-6267 or email piui@pacificains.com/.

Pacifica Insurance Underwriters, Inc. wishes the CNMI an advanced Merry Christmas and a safe holiday season.