President’s Blog #13f: Awards of the Barbara Petchenik Children’s Map Competition 2021 at the 30th ICC International Cartographic Association

Dear ICA Colleagues,

An important tradition at every biennial International Cartographic Conferences is the Barbara Petchenik Children’s Map Competition. It was created by the International Cartographic Association in 1993 as a memorial for Barbara Petchenik, a past Vice-President of the ICA and cartographer who had a lifelong interest in maps for children. The aim of the contest is to promote the creative representation of the world in graphic form by children.

Together with the general map exhibition, from 13–17 December 2021 a total of 178 children’s drawings from 32 member countries were displayed in four categories at the Italian Geographic Military Institute in Florence. As usual, the exhibition was open to the public and well visited during all day. A virtual exhibition can still be viewed here.

A well-established international jury of 8 members, organized by José Jesús Reyes Nunez (Hungary), Vice-chair of the ICA Commission on Cartography and Children, selected 12 awards in four age categories categories. In addition, a creativity award and an award for the public vote were selected. All children’s awards were presented by the jury at the Closing Ceremony on 18 December in the beautiful Sala Pegaso in Palazzo Guadagni Strozzi Sacrati.