Nine Malaysian children have had their artwork selected as the winning masterpieces in the National phase of the 2016 Toyota Dream Car Art Contest. The global contest, organised by Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is in its tenth year.
The Toyota Dream Car Art Contest is one of the largest global art contest, participated by children from over 81 countries who shared their ideas about the future of mobility by drawing their dream cars. Each year, the contest starts around November of the prior year with the national phase where the best submissions in each category are chosen. There are three categories for different age groups – under 8 years old, 8 to 11 years old and 12 to 15 years old.
Drawings by respective country winners’ are sent to TMC in Japan for the World Contest phase where every submission will be judged by TMC top management, together with art experts. The award ceremony for the World Contest phase is scheduled to be held in Japan this August and will be attended by participants whose drawing is selected as the finalist.
For this year’s National phase in Malaysia, UMW Toyota Motor received more than 600 entries, mostly coming from participants in the 10 – 12 year old category. Each submission was judged by a panel of judges comprises of Malaysian art experts and UMW Toyota Motor management. The top three winners from each category are as follows:
Under 8 years old category
1. Tee Kay Ray
2. Emerson Chong Tze Wei
3. Cher Tan
8 – 11 years old category
1. Lim Xiao Yun
2. Rachel Ong KarErn
3. Leong Zhen Hao
12 – 15 years old category
1. Lim Yuan Qian
2. Lim Xin Ying
3. Lee Sin Tian
Winners of each category received prizes for their efforts which include an Apple iPad Mini for the first prize winner, a mountain bike for the second prize winner, and 2 tickets to the Legoland theme park in Johor for the third prize winner.
“I would like to congratulate the lucky winners for their efforts and creativity and made it through to the World Contest,” said Datuk Ismet Suki, President of UMW Toyota Motor. “Immense creativity was evident and it is assuring to know, from the artworks submitted, that the future generation has a desire to live in a safe and clean environment.”
Datuk Ismet added that a number of Malaysians have won awards in the World Contest over the years and in 2013, one of them even won the “Special President Akio Toyoda Award”a special award which was chosen by the TMC President himself.
