Hosted annually, the Scholastic Art and Writing awards allows students to showcase their creative skills. The Scholastic Art and writing awards is a national contest and students at J-DHS won multiple awards from it. At J-DHS, one student won the Portfolio Gold Key, nine students won a gold key, seven won a silver key, and 12 earned an honorable mention. Many won multiple awards.
Senior Lyla Rivard won the Portfolio Gold Key, an additional gold key, three silver keys, and two honorable mentions. As a prize, she got some pins and letters, which she received at an award ceremony at OCC, on Tues., Jan. 21. She has the chance of possibly getting a scholarship because of this. “I put so much hard work and thought into all of my pieces, I was definitely expecting something,” Rivard said over email.
She shared that her biggest challenge was all mental. Her overall theme for her portfolio was Grieving The Death of a Sibling, which was hard for her to execute. This portfolio held a lot of personal value to her. Rivard’s portfolio included six different pieces, which were made up of charcoal, pen, watercolor, oil paint, and acrylic paint.
She is going to college for art, so her previous awards helped her apply to schools. She got a silver key in her freshman year, and a gold and silver key in her junior year.
Her least favorite thing about the contest was the lack of recognition some pieces get. “I believe, at least at the regional level, it’s just a local judge or panel of judges deciding what label your hard work deserves,” Rivard said over email.
Sophomore Benson Lian won the gold and silver key awards. He also earned the Art Store Award for best drawing, and the American Visions nominee. As a prize, he got a drawing book, and some colored pencils, which was received at the award ceremony.
The art piece he submitted is an illustration of a bird. The hardest part was finishing it in time, and making sure to add the little details. “It was definitely my favorite, I spent the most amount of time on this one,” Lian said.
Senior Gabriela Nikolavsky won a gold key award; she was awarded a certificate at the ceremony. She submitted an oil painting, which took 10 months to complete. “I’m relatively new to oil painting, so it was hard to get used to” said Nikolavsky. The hardest part for her was taking a good photo of her art piece to submit online.
There are many different types of awards that students can receive. First there are the regional awards, which are the gold and silver keys, and an honorable mention. Then there are the national awards, which are the gold and silver medals, and any scholarship awards.
Then there are the American Voices and Visions awards. “Jurors from each region can select up to five works to be American Voices or Visions Award Nominees. To be nominated for the American Voices or Visions Award, participants must first earn a gold key in their region. These nominated works are then reviewed by national judges to receive American Voices or Visions Medals. One nominee from each region will be selected to receive a national American Voices or Visions Medal,” according to the Scholastic website.
Nikolavsky and Rivard recommend other people to try this out. Students could just submit an artwork for the chance of receiving a lot of recognition. In order to participate and possibly win an award, students must be in grades 7-12, and be 13 years old or older. Submissions are found online, through the Scholastic Art and Writing contest website, as photos. It costs $10 to submit an individual artwork, and $30 for a portfolio. At J-D, the school will pay for submissions. For this year, the deadline to submit artwork was Dec. 9.
National medalists attend the National ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The winning artworks are being showcased right now through March 1 at OCC.
