This year “Arts for the Parks” announced a new contest. The “Mini 50,” its first competition for miniatures, started off with more than 1,300 entries. Thea Flanagan of East Holden has been selected into the 2002 “Mini 50” for artwork titled “The Pools Within,” featuring Acadia National Park.

The competition is designed to support and promote national parks through the work of artists who have captured on canvas and paper some the most dramatic and enticing visions of those parks. By sharing these artworks in a nationally touring exhibition, “Arts for the Parks” offers the public a unique and educational perspective of the treasures that lie within the National Park System.

The top award winners for this year’s competition will not be announced until the awards ceremony and banquet, held on Sept. 14 in Grand Teton National Park’s historic Jackson Lodge.

For more information on “Arts for the Parks,” visit www.artsfortheparks.com.