In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of U.S.-Vietnam relations, the U.S. Mission in Vietnam, hereinafter referred to as the U.S. Mission, is organizing a Mural Design Contest to encourage all Vietnamese, ages 18 and above, to submit a design for a wall mural that extends the current Hanoi Ceramic Mosaic Mural or Hanoi Ceramic Road.
-
- The mural design should be for a 25-meter-long and 1.6-meter-high wall. Please submit a 100-centimeter-long and 6.4-centimeter-high design;
- The design should highlight bilateral cooperation between the governments of the U.S. and Vietnam and people-to-people ties. Subjects for the mural design might include: Vietnamese students studying in the U.S., educational, professional and other exchanges between American and Vietnamese people, and travel and tourism between the two nations. Other areas of cooperation that could be highlighted in the mural design are U.S. and Vietnamese cooperation in the areas of:
o sustainable development and environmental protection
o highlighting business, trade, investment and commercial ties
o overcoming the legacies of war
o promoting regional peace and stability in Asia
o improving public health
- The logo of U.S.-Vietnam relations should be included in the mural design;
- The design should be able to be transformed into a ceramic mosaic mural;
- The design will become property of the U.S. Government.
Platform(s)
The contest entry and administration will take place through Zoho. Contest winners may be announced on the Facebook pages of the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh. However, this platform is not a partner or sponsor of the contest. Contestants are reminded that by participating in the contest and uploading contents via the Zoho form, they are bound by Zoho’s Terms of Service and any agreement with Zoho contained therein.
How to enter
- Interested participants can submit only one mural design on this page: https://bit.ly/2KMvlUh;
- Once the mural design is submitted, it is considered a final submission and may not be modified, edited, or replaced;
- By entering this contest, you agree that the images you submit may be used on the websites and social media sites of the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh, promotional materials, signs, U.S. Department of State events, and publications, for non-commercial purposes;
- Participation in this contest is deemed as acceptance of these official contest rules;
- A submission must be original content created and owned by the contestant; Artworks must be submitted digitally;
- Entries must be submitted between September 1, 2019, and September 30, 2019.
- The top qualified entries will be uploaded as one Facebook album for online voting for the People’s Choice winner, starting on October 7, 2019;
- The announcement of the winners will be posted on the Facebook pages of the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh in late October 2019.
Content Requirements:
a. Submissions must not contain obscenity, explicit sexual material, nudity, profanity, graphic violence, calls or incitement to violence, commercial solicitation or commercial promotion. Submissions must conform to Vietnamese laws and must not contain contents or images that could be considered abusive, inflammatory, denigrating, or disrespectful to the U.S. Mission in Vietnam, the U.S. Department of State, the government or people of Vietnam, or to any other groups, individuals, or institutions. Submissions must adhere both in appearance and in fact to the norms of civil discourse. In other words, the content of all submissions must be suitable for a global, public audience.
b. Submissions must be original content created by the contestant and must not contain any elements that are protected by someone else’s copyright or otherwise subject to third party intellectual property or proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights (except as expressly permitted below in (d)). The U.S. Mission recognizes no allowance for “fair use” of copyrighted material, nor does it recognize allowance for use of licensed materials created or owned by a third party.
c. The U.S. Mission reserves the right to disqualify, at its sole and absolute discretion, any submission that does not adhere to these criteria and to the intent and substance of these official contest rules.
d. In the event of any question or difference of views regarding compliance with, interpretation, or application of these content requirements or other provisions of these Official Contest Rules, the U.S. Mission reserves the exclusive right to resolve such questions or differences of views in its sole discretion.
e. By submitting a mural design to the contest, the contestant affirms that he or she has obtained written consent from all individuals whose image or likeness appears in the artwork (or from the individuals’ parent/legal guardian if any such individuals are considered a minor in their country of residence), and that he or she has obtained the necessary rights, licenses, consents, and permissions to use all material such as music, images, texts and other contents in the submission. The contestant further affirms that he or she is prepared to provide reliable documentation of any and all such consents, licenses, etc., upon request. Failure to obtain such rights, license, consents, and permissions may result in the disqualification of the photo submission at the U.S. Mission’s sole and absolute discretion.
Technical Format Requirements
Artwork submissions must be adaptable to different scales and different use (e.g. webpages, e-mails, hard copy, projected images, large banners, and signs). Submit one single image file in either .jpeg or .png format, high resolution.
Submissions should not have any visible watermarks, signatures, or personally identifiable information.
Eligibility
a. Contestants must be at least 18 years old on the date of entry into the contest. Contestants must be residents of Vietnam and may not be citizens or lawful permanent residents of the U.S.
b. The individual submitting the entry will be considered the contestant and will be the only individual eligible to compete for the prize. Organizations are not eligible to compete for the prize, either as an entity, or through representation by an individual. In order to be eligible for the prize, the contestant must provide complete and accurate information.
c. The following individuals are not eligible to participate in the contest: Employees, interns, directors, and officers of the U.S. Mission or the U.S. Government, and of Facebook; or any employees, interns, directors, or officers of any agencies, companies or entities involved in the administration, advertising, judging, creation, development, execution, and/or fulfillment of this contest, and the immediate family members (defined as spouse, recognized partner, parent, child, sibling, and spouse or “step” of each) and those living in the same household of each such individual.
d. Once a submission has been accepted for entry into the contest, the contestant’s name (or User ID, if the contestant wishes to remain anonymous) and country may be publicly identified at the sole discretion of the contestant.
Selection of winners
a. All submissions are subject to pre-screening by U.S. Mission to ensure high-quality and compliance with these Official Contest Rules. Any mural design out of compliance will not be posted. Only the top designs will be posted on Facebook for public voting. The U.S. Mission reserves the right in its sole and absolute discretion to verify in the final analysis whether a potential finalist or potential winning poster submission has fully complied with these Official Contest Rules before posting on the contest site, awarding prize, recognizing a winner, etc.
b. Judges: The judges will include U.S. Mission staff and independent Vietnamese artists.
c. Judging Criteria:
- Composition of the artwork 60%
- Relevance to the theme 40%
d. Winners: There will be two (2) winners for this challenge. The Grand Prize winner will be determined by the judges using the above criteria. The People’s Choice winner will be determined through public voting following a pre-screening of the top designs complying with the Official Contest Rules. Winners and finalists may choose to use an alias instead of their real name and may request that other identifying information be kept private.
e. Winner(s) will be contacted via email. The inability of the U.S. Mission to contact a potential winner may result in disqualification and/or selection of an alternate winner from among all remaining eligible submissions.
f. The announcement of the winners will be posted on the Facebook pages of the U.S. Embassy (https://www.facebook.com/usembassyhanoi/) and the U.S. Consulate General (https://www.facebook.com/achochiminh.usconsulate/) in late October 2019.
Prize(s)
a. Grand Prize – Ipad, Swag bag, winner’s certificate, plus photo opportunity with Ambassador Kritenbrink (for Hanoi-based winner) or Consul General Marie Damour (for HCMC-based winner). ***The winning design will be transformed into an extended ceramic mosaic mural as part of the famous Hanoi Ceramic Road***
People’s Choice – Swag bag, winner’s certificate and Photo opportunity with Ambassador Kritenbrink (for Hanoi-based winner) or Consul General Marie Damour (for HCMC-based winner).
b. The winning artwork will be posted on the Facebook pages of the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City.
c. Winners have to confirm the acceptance of the prize through email within three calendar days. If the acceptance is not confirmed by the required date, the U.S. Mission reserves the right to select an alternate winner.
d. Any unused portion of the prize is not transferable, convertible, or exchangeable and cannot be taken as cash. All taxes on or in connection with any prize, and the reporting consequences thereof, are the sole and exclusive responsibility of the winner.
Liability and rights
a. The U.S. Mission does not endorse any submissions or messages expressed therein, and the U.S. Mission expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with the submitted poster including disputes between collaborators related to a submission.
b. The contest and the U.S. Mission do not permit copyright infringing activities or infringement of any other intellectual property rights, and the U.S. Mission reserves the right to remove and disqualify any submission they deem to be in violation of another party’s copyright or other intellectual property rights.
c. The U.S. Government will retain sole ownership of the original work. Contestant specifically agrees to give the U.S. Mission permission to use all content submitted for purposes of judging the contest. Finalists and/or winners will be required to grant the U.S. Mission, with proper attribution through whatever means they deem appropriate, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, and/or display the submission in any media formats and through any media channels in perpetuity in connection with the activities and operations of the contest.
d. Contestant assumes sole responsibility for the contest submission and the material contained in it, and for any consequences of submitting or posting it.
e. The U.S. Mission reserves the right at any time to verify the validity of entries and of contestants and to disqualify any contestant or entry deemed not in compliance with these Official Contest Rules. The U.S. Mission also reserves the right to request further documentation, at its sole and absolute discretion, to verify eligibility and compliance with these Official Contest Rules.
f. If a prize or any portion thereof is unavailable, the U.S. Mission, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to substitute the prize with another prize of equal or greater value and/or specification.
g. The U.S. Mission reserves the right, at any time and in its sole discretion, to disqualify and/or deem ineligible any individual who it reasonably believes (i) has violated the Official Contest Rules; (ii) has violated the terms of use of platform, or (iii) is acting in a bad faith, or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person.
h. The U.S. Mission reserves the right to modify, suspend, terminate or cancel the contest at its discretion for any reason.
i. Contestant agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the U.S. Mission, its parent, subsidiary and affiliated agencies, officers, directors, employees, interns, and agents, from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debts, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees) arising from (i) violation of these Official Contest Rules; (ii) violation of any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, trademark, intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other proprietary right in connection with the contest; or (iii) any claim that a contest submission caused any harm, including financial, to any third party. These indemnification and hold harmless obligations will survive indefinitely beyond the conclusion of the contest.
j. The conduct, judging, and awarding of prizes will be carried out in full compliance with applicable U.S. law and host country law. In the event of a conflict between U.S. law and host country law, U.S. law shall apply.
k. The U.S. Mission and the U.S. Government will take reasonable measures to protect privacy data, personally identifiable information, and other sensitive data of contestants. Contact information provided by contestants may be stored by the U.S. Mission and may be used to contact contestants for other purposes in the future. This information may be made available to third parties to the extent permitted by law.
l. The U.S. Mission assumes no liability or responsibility for any loss or harm resulting from any user’s participation in or attempt to participate in the contest or ability or inability to upload, download, or otherwise access any information in connection with participating in the contest. The U.S. Mission assumes no responsibility or liability for technical problems, or technical malfunctions arising in connection with the operation of the contest, including: hardware or software errors; faulty computer, telephone, cable, satellite, network, electronic, wireless or Internet connectivity, or other online communication problems; errors or limitations of any Internet service providers, servers, hosts or providers; garbled, jumbled or faulty data transmissions; failure of any email transmissions to be sent or received; lost, late, delayed or intercepted email transmissions; inaccessibility of the contest site in whole or in part for any reason; traffic congestion on the Internet or the contest site; unauthorized human or non-human intervention in the operation of the contest, including without limitation, unauthorized tampering, hacking, theft, virus, bugs, worms; or destruction of any aspect of the contest, or loss, miscount, misdirection, inaccessibility or unavailability of an email account used in connection with the contest.
m. Use of contest site is at user’s own risk. The U.S. Mission is not responsible for any personal injury, property damage, or losses of any kind which may be sustained to computer equipment resulting from participation in the contest, use of the contest site or the downloading of information from the contest site. By participating in the contest, the contestant releases the U.S. Mission from any and all claims arising from or relating to such contestant’s participation in the contest, whether directly or indirectly.
n. The U.S. Mission is not liable in the event that any portion of the contest is cancelled or delayed due to weather, fire, strike, acts of war or terrorism, or any other reason.
