Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs

Bow Seat is a Massachusetts-based nonprofit whose mission is to educate and engage youth in ocean conservation and advocacy through the arts. Bow Seat is a unique organization: unlike more traditional nonprofits, Bow Seat is a family-legacy project created and principally funded by Founder and President Linda Cabot. Bow Seat operates as a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation.

Our flagship educational initiative, the Ocean Awareness Contest, invites teens to explore the connections between human activities and the health of our blue planet through visual and performing arts, creative writing, film, and multimedia. Since 2011, more than 24,000 youth from all 50 U.S. states and over 130 countries have participated in the Contest.

To support students’ participation in the Contest, Bow Seat delivers educational programming, such as webinars and workshops, that dive into conservation topics. In addition, we create an online, curated Resource Studio that offers an interdisciplinary educational experience to help students learn about environmental issues. The Resource Studio also provides educators with lesson plans, classroom activities, and suggested reading to help them incorporate the Contest into their curricula. Thousands of classrooms around the world participate in the Contest each year.

Student work becomes part of Bow Seat’s global art collection that is showcased in our online Gallery, and through social media, exhibitions, film screenings, publications, and partner initiatives to raise awareness about climate change, ocean pollution, and threats to marine biodiversity, and to inspire action on these issues. We also collaborate with schools and community organizations to combine ocean literacy and creative communications in classrooms and afterschool programs, and to amplify youth voices in environmental campaigns and conversations.