Are you our face of 2020?

FACES OF DYSLEXIA SELF-PORTRAIT COMPETITION 2020

Opens on the 1st of July!

The Dear Dyslexic Foundation today announced it would run a national self-portrait competition to find the Faces of Dyslexia from around Australia.

COVID-19 restrictions have halted fundraising, including the annual gala which raised $20,000 over the past two years. DDF uses funds to provide peer support to people with dyslexia and raise awareness of dyslexia in the community, workplace and education sector.

Dyslexia is a life-long condition which impacts a person’s ability to read, which in turn makes it harder to get an education and to function in the modern workplace, which more and more relies on written communication. Around 1 in 10 Australians has dyslexia, and there is no cure.

This year DDF will hold a national competition to find the top 12 self-portraits by people with dyslexia, dyscalculia (an inability to use numbers) and dysgraphia (an inability to write) and these top portraits will form the DDF 2021 calendar. Entries will be open for submission between 1 July and 31 August and must be original works by the entrant.

Founder and CEO of Dear Dyslexic Foundation, Shae Wissell, said many people with dyslexia develop other talents to compensate for their lack of reading ability.

“People with dyslexia often use art to express themselves, in lieu of being able to write their thoughts,” Shae said. “It makes sense to us to open up this competition to all people with dyslexia (over the age of 16), to let them show us what they feel living with dyslexia is like."

“More than that, we want to create a calendar people will want to have hanging in the kitchen or workplace, and we know that when art comes from pain or, it can be truly moving and beautiful.”

Shae said a panel of judges will shortlist 31 self-portraits, and these will be featured on the DDF website in October this year. People will be invited to make a donation (large or small) for their favourite portrait and the winner will be the People’s Choice winner, and will become the face of October 2021, which is Dyslexia Awareness Month.”

DDF is currently working to form the panel of judges from around Australia who will judge the portraits on artistic grounds.

“We’re currently in the process of forming partnerships with some organisations to bring artistic expertise to the table. We want this self-portrait competition too from serious to amateurs artists and anywhere in between” Shae said.

“And entrants can use any medium – photography, sketch, collage, paint in whatever form – so long as it is flat and can be represented accurately online.”

Terms and conditions for the competition here

For more information, contact [email protected]