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When you think about World Vitiligo Day, art competitions might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But in 2024 and 2025, creativity took center stage — literally — as artists, patients, and even AI tools joined forces to shed light on life with vitiligo.

WVD 2024: A Creative First in Cali

The first-ever World Vitiligo Day art competition launched in Cali, Colombia, during the global event themed United by the Skin (“Unidos Por La Piel”). It was a bold move — blending medicine, emotion, and imagination — and it worked.

Held over June 24–25, the contest welcomed everything from hand-drawn art to poetry and AI-generated pieces. A beautiful mix of tradition and tech.

The winner: Dr. Jacqueline Cifuentes, with a stunning AI-generated photorealistic piece of a man with vitiligo behind prison bars. It wasn’t just art — it was a statement about stigma, shame, and the silent walls people with vitiligo sometimes face.

Right alongside her, Dr. Andrea Arango was honored for her vitiligo-themed children’s book. Because sometimes, the best way to change the world is by shaping how the next generation sees it.

This wasn’t just a side event — it was a shift. For the first time, World Vitiligo Day embraced art as a serious tool for advocacy, not just aesthetics.

WVD 2025: When AI Met Art in Toronto

Fast forward to 2025 in Toronto, Canada, and the art competition evolved into something even more ambitious. With the theme Innovation for Every Skin, Powered by AI, the contest reflected the campaign’s tech-forward spirit.

This time, artists could submit to two categories:

• AI-driven art, including augmented reality and digital works
• Traditional formats, like painting, photography, and sculpture

Each category came with a $250 prize and recognition from industry sponsors. Entries and votes flowed through the Skinopathy Vitiligo App, making participation as seamless as scrolling your phone. 

- AI Category Winner: Goran Miladich (EU), “Native Harmony”

- Mixed Media (Non‑AI) Winner: Gabriela Guerra de Almeida (Brazil), “Travessia (Crossing)”  

These winning works reflect the diversity of vision and medium that this competition was built to celebrate.

And it all happened during a historic moment: WVD 2025 was a part of city-wide Toronto Tech Week, with the CN Tower, City Hall, and 14 other landmarks glowing purple in a campaign known as #Lit4Vit.

Behind the scenes, the numbers were just as impressive: 60 million unique accounts reached, over 150 million impressions in two weeks, and 48+ countries reporting media coverage. The art didn’t just hang on walls — it traveled around the world.

WVD 2026: Chandigarh Meets CultTech 

Now, we’re building something even bigger.

As we gear up for World Vitiligo Day 2026 in Chandigarh, India, we’re launching a new collaboration with CultTech Association, a Vienna-based nonprofit that explores how technology can elevate culture in a post-material world.

Formerly known as Immaterial Future, CultTech supports projects that explore tech’s transformative power in art, society, and beyond. Their mission is to make culture central to human growth — and to ensure technology serves that purpose.

Together, we’re designing a next-generation vitiligo art competition, featuring cross-cultural collaboration projects between Indian and Central European artists, and professional curation of winning entries.  

IADVL: The Creative Bedrock of WVD Art Initiatives

For years, the Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists (IADVL) has championed vitiligo awareness not only through science, but also through art.

In 2025, the IADVL Vitiligo Day Painting Competition invited members to express the themes of acceptance, awareness, and treatment. The response? A remarkable 144 entries, judged by artist Arpa Mukherjee and Dr. Tarun Narang, with 12 winning artworks selected for recognition.

A Canvas as Wide as the Sky

It’s no accident that the next chapter of this creative journey lands in Chandigarh — a city dreamed into existence by Le Corbusier, the modernist architect who believed that “a house is a machine for living in,” and that “light, space, and order” could heal societies.

He didn’t just design buildings. He designed ideas — bold, sometimes controversial, always human. And at the heart of his Chandigarh stands the Open Hand Monument: a 26-meter-high sculpture with a simple message — to give and to receive, in peace and unity.

Sound familiar?

That’s what the vitiligo art competition has become. A space where we give our stories to the world. And receive empathy, strength, and visibility in return.

From AI portraits to children’s books, from watercolor scars to collaborative murals — every piece is a kind of open hand. A gesture. A mirror. A megaphone.

So as World Vitiligo Day 2026 prepares to return to this city of symbolic architecture, we’re not just building another contest — we’re constructing a movement. One brushstroke, one pixel, one human connection at a time.

And maybe, just maybe, Le Corbusier would smile at that.

Yan Valle

CEO VRF, Professor | Author A No-Nonsense Guide To Vitiligo

P.S. The official announcement is coming soon, but honestly — I couldn’t wait. I just had to share this moment with the vitiligo art community, whose courage and creativity made it all possible.

Keep reading:

• World Vitiligo Day 2026 – A Historic Return to the Movement's Spiritual Birthplace
• World Vitiligo Day’s Media Coverage Evolution: From Detroit to Toronto
• World Vitiligo Day 2025 – Global Celebrations & Media Footprint

or Listen to Deep Dive in Vitiligo podcast

• World Vitiligo Day Goes Supersonic in Purple (Ep. 39)
• How World Vitiligo Day Reached 60+ Million People in 24 Hours (Ep. 38)
• World Vitiligo Day: Redefining the Future of Dermatology (Ep. 36)