December 11, 2014 - Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry and Artlink Contemporary Gallery are inviting area residents to take part in a Riverfront Fort Wayne photo contest.  Participants are invited to share their favorite Fort Wayne river-related photos through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram beginning December 15, 2014; the last day for submissions is January 15, 2015.

Participants will have a chance to win a $90, $70 or $50 prize as well as have their photos become part of a traveling photography exhibit. The exhibit will be revealed at the Riverfront Fort Wayne final plan celebration, which will take place February 4, 2015 at 5:30 p.m. at the Grand Wayne Center. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.

“Thousands of area residents have participated in the Riverfront Fort Wayne study; they’ve given us their ideas and opinions and taken part in clean-ups and riverboat rides,” said Mayor Henry. “This is another great opportunity for the public to share their enthusiasm for the future of our downtown riverfront. I continue to be encouraged by the possibilities for riverfront development as we work together to invest in our community.”

There are three ways to enter the photo contest. Participants can:

  1.      Post a photo to their Facebook page and use the hashtag #RiverFrontFW;
  2.      Tweet their picture and include @artlinkftwayne, @CityofFortWayne and #RiverFrontFW;
  3.      Or Instagram their picture and include @artlinkftwayne and #RiverFrontFW.


All photos will be posted to a Facebook album on Artlink’s page by January 19. After January 19, people can vote for their favorite photo. The three photos with the most “likes” before January 23, 2015, will win the cash prizes. The 25 photos with the most likes will be included in the traveling photo installation project.

“Artlink is excited to partner with the City on this community project,” said Amber Recker, executive director of Arlink. “As a downtown nonprofit located near the rivers, we are invested in the vision for our riverfront development and believe art will play an integral role in that project. This social media photo contest is just one way the community can get involved in the momentum of both the riverfront plans and the growing arts movement.” 

Requirements:

Artlink and the City of Fort Wayne reserve the right to reproduce any submissions for promotional purposes and to refuse any photo that contains content deemed inappropriate. By submitting the photo, the submitter asserts that they have full rights to the image and they assign the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA license to the image. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ 

Background:

In November 2013, the City contracted with SWA Group to complete the Riverfront Study, which is the first comprehensive look at enhancing the use of our city’s downtown riverfront; it is intended to provide the road map to a world class investment. The latest version of the draft plan calls for a focus on nature, recreation and development. The final master plan will be revealed on February 4, 2015 at 5:30 p.m. at the Grand Wayne Center.