ARTEFFECT Competition
Steps to Participate Step 1: Choose Your Unsung Hero
The 2026 ARTEFFECT Competition for middle and high school students is open through April 21, 2026! The first step for young artists in creating an ARTEFFECT submission is to select an LMC Unsung Hero—an individual who resonates as a role model.
The ARTEFFECT website now features an Unsung Heroes Pictographs Interactive that encourages students to explore STEAM Unsung Heroes through images and photographs. Use this interactive to learn about the positive, profound, and lasting impact their contributions made across the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics!
Remembering the Holocaust Session Wednesday, February 18, 2026
4:00-5:15 PM Pacific Time
All educators are invited to join the next ARTEFFECT online session. Led by 2020 Nebraska Teacher of the Year and 2021 LMC Fellow Megan Helberg, this session explores best practices for guiding students in the creation of visual artworks representing stories of Unsung Heroes from the Holocaust and other genocides. All registrants will receive the lesson plan and recording. Attendees to the live session can receive a Certificate of Participation. Free to join—registration required. Learn more about the session and instructor.
Meet our 2024-2025 Ambassador Jennifer Bolesta, a Visual Art Teacher at Visitation Academy in St. Louis, Missouri.
Each ARTEFFECT Ambassador culminates their visual arts online fellowship with a capstone project that brings the inspiring stories of the LMC Unsung Heroes into their classrooms and communities. Here is an excerpt from Jenn’s multifaceted Capstone Project report:
“Each student created an original visual design inspired by their hero and chosen virtue. As a 7th grade class, we collaborated to select three designs, which were then transformed into large scale mosaics—a permanent tribute to these unsung heroes, which will be installed in our middle school’s new wing next summer. This public artwork serves as both a visual celebration of history and a reminder of the power of virtue in action.”
Congratulations to Jenn and her students at Visitation Academy for their incredible ARTEFFECT projects!
