In honor of the 20th anniversary of Creative Commons licenses, we launched our first ever Open Culture Remix Art Contest #CCSharesCulture in February 2022 to celebrate a better sharing of cultural heritage around the world.

Participants were tasked with creating original artworks in line with this year’s theme of “Love Culture? Share Culture!” by remixing public domain or CC BY-licensed images, paintings, photographs, drawings, etc., digitized in open collections. 

We received close to 100 inspiring submissions, and are deeply grateful to everyone who participated in the contest. Your contributions underscore the creativity and transformative power that open access to cultural heritage can unleash, and we thank you for your gift to the commons.

After three exciting months and careful review of the eligible submissions by our panel of judges João Pombeiro, Yana Buhrer Tavanier, Laliv Gal, Tyler Green and karen darricades, we are pleased to announce the winners of the CC Open Culture Remix Art Contest 2022.

The artworks, their descriptions and views expressed therein are those of the artists alone, and do not represent the views of Creative Commons.

Here are the prizes for #CCSharesCulture

1st place: cash award of US$1000
2nd place: cash award of US$500
3rd place: cash award of US$250
4th-7th: “honorable mention” – a copy of “Made with Creative Commons” signed by Larry Lessig, founder of Creative Commons
8th-10th place: “honorable mention” – a copy of “Made with Creative Commons”
Public choice award: Creative Commons merchandise

Here is a link to a list of attributions for the source material for each artwork >>

1st place: “Open Culture Salon – A Librarian’s Dream” by Alwaleed Khalid licensed under CC BY

Alwaleed on his work: “’Open Culture Salon’ reimagines digital repositories as a brick-and-mortar repository, in which openly licensed content comes alive and interacts with one another. The building brings together a collection from various sources, such as paintings, photographs, and landscapes. The windows of the building represent web browser windows. This remixed work, which uses 25 different openly licensed works, is inspired by 1980’s children’s puzzle books, as well as Dadaism and Surrealism – depicting perhaps a digital repository librarian’s dream.”

2nd place: “Lady with flowers” by Teresa Garcia licensed under CC BY

Teresa on her work: “One of the most famous works in history, created at a time when artistic appreciation was given by beauty, is transformed into a work for the 21st century, where artistic appreciation is the show. Because you have to ask yourself:

Where do those flowers come from?

• Is she dressed like this?
• Does she not have a body?
• Or is her clothes fused with the background?
• Is this work a second version of Leonardo da Vinci that has not been shown to the public?

I made this collage a day when I was a bit depressed. The darkness of the background of “The Lady and the Ermine” together with the black of “Still Life with Flowers and a Watch” gives me a somewhat dark but happy feeling. A light in the darkness.”

3rd place: “Nostalgia” by Florens Debora Patricia licensed under CC BY

Florens on her work: “Life is a loop, and Nietzsche considers a loop that occurs in our lives as a comedy. And named the concept Eternal Recurrence. And Nostalgia is one of the triggers for every human being to remember the repetitions that have occurred in their lives, both in terms of economic, cultural, and environmental psychology.”

4th place: “The Arts: Painting” by Robert Paul licensed under CC0

Robert on his work: “Creative Commons is integral to my approach to art, being both an enthusiastic user and creator of works licensed under Creative Commons. This work—a contemporary digital remix of Alphonse Mucha’s “La Peinture”—expresses my love for the creative potential that’s unleashed when art, culture, and media are shared freely and openly.”

5th place: “Metamorphosis UV-Map” by Carlos Travaini licensed under CC BY

Carlos on his work: “Metamorphosis UV-Map is a remix-work based on the 3D-digital scan of the neoclassical sculpture “Jason and the Golden Fleece” by Thorvaldsen, with the purpose of establishing a dialogue between past and present.

The scan of the original work was modified with the use of 3D-digital technology: the result is the 3D-Jason opened out onto a 2D-plane.”

6th place: “Disappearing” by Cristina Paveri licensed under CC BY

Cristina on her work: “‘It could happen to us’ was the Leitmotiv that made me select Ukraine culture heritage for this artwork. Here I remix a portrait of a young Ukrainian girl and an image of Ukrainian culture, in particular textiles and embroidery. The young girl’s portrait is fading as culture and people of Ukraine.”

7th place: “Frank against the Odd” by Chalas Jacques licensed under CC BY

Jacques on his work: “I was roaming on Numelyo, the Bibliothèque Numérique de Lyon, when I found this book. The original one is interesting, but it was this ugly numerisation which inspired me, with all its defaults. I don’t read nor speak Italian, so I just look at the drawings as a strange comic book of science-fiction. It reminds me of some stories like the ones we could find on Metal Hurlant crossed with pulp magazine. And the one I saw was really weird. A man, that I used to call Frank, ended up trapped in a strange world, fighting against unusual things, geometrical forms, flying hands with swords, robot guys, flying heads, etc…”

8th place + Public Choice Award: “East or West – Human stories are the best” by Arunesh Varade licensed under CC BY

Arunesh on his work: “Initially, I was influenced a lot by the western culture. However, over the years, I’ve developed a deep sense of appreciation for the culture of the east. Even though there’s a stark difference in the culture of the two regions, it’s the human emotion which drives us all. Expression of this emotion through music, paintings, sculpture, dance etc. provide us a medium to tell our story. That’s the best part about all these mediums of expression. It unites us all for the love of sharing our stories with no barrier of language. On a deeper level, it is these stories which form the basis for human connection.”

9th place: “Her Own Woman” by Danny Messing licensed under CC0

Danny on his work: “The original idea was to dress a famous nude (woman). How I was going to dress her was going to depend on the historical context of whatever piece I eventually used, but the ultimate goal was to challenge the history of the male gaze in art…As a child myself who played with paper-dolls, the first thing I would do is dress them as I’d dress myself (or how I wish I could dress). In that case, you have the viewer projecting themselves onto the goddess and how that can be rich with meaning. Dressing up is fun! Society oppresses women by reducing them to their looks! It’s everything. I loved making it. Funnily enough, the clothes were inspired by Sex and the City.”

10th place: “Justice for Johnny Depp” by OMARTCRAFT licensed under CC BY

Omartcraft on their work: “The modern world has evolved into a place where people are protected by law. Women enjoy the rights that years ago have not been in place, and generally, there is a constant positive dynamic in gaining rights for different groups of people. However, we witness the phenomenon when people abuse the law and transform it into a weapon for gaining credits. In 2022 Johnny Depp is becoming a symbol of this phenomenon.”