International Flag of Language Design Contest Winning Entry - June 2009

    BROOKLYN, MD, July 02, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- International Flag of Language Design Contest Winning Entry - June 2009

The National Museum of Language is proud to announce the creation of what it believes to be the world's first International Flag of Language.

The flag is the result of a contest for school children and young adults sponsored by the Museum to design the winning entry. The contest, the Museum's contribution to commemorate UNESCO's International Year of Languages, ran from September to November of last year and received entries from all over the world. In the end, a panel of judges, experts in languages and vexillology, picked the winning entries and determined the final design. First place winners (a tie) were Mr. Peter Klumpenhower, Grants, New Mexico, and Tedi Dessin, Middletown, Delaware, who both offered tree designs similar to the final result. Both received cash awards and plaques. Runners-up were Elena Erbez, Spain; Karly Soulas, West Chester, Pennsylvania; and Jay Lago, Dade City, Florida. All five individuals received a membership in the Museum.

The judges liked the idea of a tree to represent languages. The three shades of green leaves represent living languages, dead languages, and future languages respectively on a brown two-tone tree trunk. The stylish curves flowing away from the tree represent the spread of knowledge gained from languages. The original flag will be displayed at the Museum and hopefully at other sites as well. "Although the flag belongs to the Museum now, it also belongs to the world," says Gregory Nedved, the project coordinator.

The National Museum of Language, a small museum that explores the transformative powers of language, opened to the public in May 2008 after more than ten years in the making. A trailblazer in the field - there are only a few museums in the world with a similar focus - the Museum examines the history, impact and art of language. As a trailblazer, it was only fitting that the Museum take on the task of creating this language flag.

The Museum is located at 7100 Baltimore Avenue, College Park, Maryland. It is open Tuesdays and Saturdays, 10:00AM - 4:00PM; first and third Sundays, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM. Its current exhibit, "Writing Language: Passing It On," shows how writing has developed over time. Attention is given to alphabetic and pictographic writing systems. For younger visitors, a hands-on activity room allows them to play a language game, practice calligraphy, see technological presentations, and touch artifacts. For information on the Museum itself, go to the NML web site at www.languagemuseum.org .

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