WEST ORANGE, NJ — Three West Orange High School students recently won regional Scholastic Art & Writing awards for excellence in visual arts and writing.
Presented by the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the 95-year-old Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program is the longest-running and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for creative students in grades seven through 12 in the country. Nationwide, nearly 350,000 works of art and writing were submitted to more than 100 affiliate partners.
The Art & Writing Awards for art in the region, which includes Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties, were presented in February at Montclair the Art Museum, where Gold Key award winners will remain on exhibit through March 26.
For arts excellence, West Orange High School’s Elika Burton won three Silver Key Awards in drawing and illustration for “Identity in Flux,” “Wisdom of Ages” and “Dream World”; and received three honorable mentions in drawing and illustration for “Yams and Pears,” “Dancing with the Moon” and “My Sister.”
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for writing were presented at the Newark Public Library on March 17.
For writing excellence, WOHS senior Katherine Meyerson won a Silver Key Award in poetry for “18 Million Cracks” and freshman Kofi Opoku Agyeman received an honorable mention in humor for “The Heathen of Heaven.”
WOHS art teacher Heather Young and WOHS English teachers Janine Sullivan and Victor Alcindor taught the winner students.
Leah Fox, director of the Vance Wall Art Education Center at the Montclair Art Museum, congratulated the young artists at the reception, saying this year’s competition saw a record number of submissions with more than 4,600 from more than 1,500 students. Of those, 266 works of art earned Gold Key Awards, 342 earned Silver Key Awards and 705 works received honorable mentions.
Fox told the young artists that their art had been recognized by a panel of creative professionals including artists, curators and educators as being among the most outstanding work submitted by their peers. The program, which began in 1923, has recognized some of America’s most celebrated artists while they were teenagers including Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon, Ken Burns, Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath and Kay WalkingStick.
“It is thrilling every February to see the exceptional work of these young artists and to know that they are on the path for exciting creative careers. In fact, Kay WalkingStick, currently featured at MAM in a major special exhibition, was a recipient of a Scholastic Art Award as a child,” Fox said.
Virginia McEnerney, executive director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, said affiliates across the country like the Montclair Art Museum and the Newark Public Library “bring the program to life by recognizing and encouraging creative teens across America. Over the course of the program’s nearly century-long history, we’ve learned that this recognition can be life changing. For many creative teens, their regional Scholastic Award leads to recognition at the national level, where opportunities for exhibition, publication and millions of dollars in scholarships await those who receive top honors.”
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