The Moscow Farmer’s Market held the sixth annual poster contest, in which they announced Laura Marie McGreevy as winner. Opening in February this year, applicants submitted posters that represented aspects of farmer’s market culture.

McGreevy’s poster used bits of produce, dried goods and fresh flowers in its design. Voters selected her poster out of the 16 submissions the contest received.

D.J. Scallorn, City of Moscow’s art assistant, helped develop the application and assisted with jury selection for the contest. She also collected submissions, notified the top five finalists and announced the winner.

The main goal was to open the poster creations to the community. Since Moscow has a local farmer’s market, the town wants community involvement, Scallorn said.

“It’s an opportunity for artists in the local area to stretch their creative muscles,” she said.

The artists designed something that reflected the market, social events, local farmers or available produce. As long as the design somehow represented the farmer’s market, the artist could include anything from a farm setting to produce in their poster. It was up to what the artist’s creativity discovered, Scallorn said.

The poster needed to include information, such as a description of the setting, specific details about products available in market or live music events, she said.

The contest jury consisted of members of the farmer’s market commission and other community members. The jury used a set of criteria to assess the poster submissions, including how well the submission followed directions, readability, artistic style and eye-catching design, and reflection of Moscow culture, all ranked one to five, she said.

The voting session lasted about a week and anyone from the local region could vote on their favorite.

While the contests present their own challenges every year, this year had unique difficulties because the City of Moscow didn’t receive any entries until two weeks before the April 3 deadline. To boost submissions, they started an advertising campaign using posters placed in downtown businesses and created social media press releases, she said.

“It is incredible how, within the last two weeks, we had 16 people from out of area that submitted posters,” Scallorn said. “They actually saw it on social media.”

The first Moscow Farmer’s Market of the year will take place on May 6, celebrating its 41st year in operation. McGeevy’s winning poster will also be on display.