What Does Your New York Look Like? This Art Contest Wants To Know.

New York is a city of eight million stories, but what would it look like if it were only 100 people? 

Artist Mona Chalabi has explored this idea on her own, and now she’s inviting you to join with a “thoughtful drawing competition” she is launching with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. 

Using census data, Chalabi — a writer, illustrator and data journalist — crunched the diverse aspects of the city’s 8.5 million residents down to 100 New Yorker characters, real and imagined, who act like avatars of the different races, genders, abilities and socio-economic statuses that make up the five boroughs. 

Now the drawing competition is inviting you to show what your version of New York looks like. Participants can make drawings of themselves, each other or their families that represent their slice of the Big Apple. Just use a white piece of paper but any other art supplies are fair game: pencil, crayons, paint, collage, coloring pencils, markers, pastels or chalk are all welcome. 

To submit: Take a digital photo of your art and submit it here by October 29. Chalabi will select 10 winning images, which will be displayed on the 280-foot screen in the Oculus from November 12 to 15, alongside Chalabi’s own work. 

The images will also be shown on the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s website. Read the full details here. 

photo: Lower Manhattan Cultural Council