The Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley Announce the Southwest Virginia Region Scholastic Art Award Winners for 2013

Roanoke County Public Schools students took two of the top five awards for the Scholastic Art competition this year (Their artwork is above).

The Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley is Southwest Virginia’s Regional Sponsor for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards through the National Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. The Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley has sponsored the ART portion of the award program for 15 years. Last year Virginia had 4 sponsors state wide and there were less than 100 nationwide.

The Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley’s board of directors and staff are very proud to be the regional sponsor for the Scholastic Art Awards for 2013. We are extremely proud to be sending 100 pieces on to the National Competition. The Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley is the Sponsor for the Counties of Pulaski, Smyth, Giles, Grayson, Bland, Carroll, Craig, Montgomery, Patrick, Roanoke and Wythe; and the Cities of Radford, Martinsville and Bristol. All schools grade 7 through 12 from the region submitted art work to The Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley. The Center supports promoting the arts in the schools. Art is very important in the early years. We support and help with programs that help further the educational opportunities for students.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are a powerful tool for building a sense of community, advocating for arts education, and fostering the creativity of emerging local talent. Through the regional program of the Awards, students are encouraged to express themselves through the arts and are rewarded for their creativity. A successful regional program is able to bring the high quality, creative works of secondary school students to a wide audience; to provide teachers and students with the opportunity to see the achievements of students from schools throughout the region; and to highlight the importance of arts education within the community

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the largest, longest-running and most generous recognition programs of their kind in the United States. The Awards were established in 1923 by M.R. Robinson (who also founded Scholastic Inc., now a global children’s publishing and media company) to encourage, foster and reward creativity in our nation’s classrooms.

Throughout their 91 year history, The Awards have bestowed early recognition upon some of our nation’s most celebrated artists and writers, including Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Andy Warhol and many others.

Each year, program materials are made available to every public, private and parochial school (grades 7 through 12) in the United States. More than 250,000 entries are submitted to a network of Regional Sponsors who screen the entries and conduct local exhibitions, readings and award ceremonies to honor more than 50,000 young artists and writers in local communities. The most outstanding works of art and writing from each of the regional programs are forwarded to New York City for national judging. Panels of distinguished artists, writers, editors and educators review more than 15,000 works of art and 12,000 manuscripts to select the 1,100 national award recipients.

Graduating seniors, who submit portfolios of art, photography or writing, compete for an additional $110,000 in cash awards and more than $1,500,000 in scholarships offered by fifty prestigious colleges, universities and art institutes.

The national award winners are celebrated each year with a series of high-profile national events. National award winners, families and teachers are invited to participate in a series of workshops and a collaborative art-making project. A national publication features samples of outstanding student work and includes a complete list of winners; a collection of writing is published with selected works; and all of the national award recipients are honored with a celebrity-studded awards ceremony.

The Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley received 719 pieces of artwork from around the region for adjudication, regionally. The team of distinguished judges awarded 5 American Vision Nominees, 100 gold keys, 78 silver keys and 75 honorable mentions on Saturday, January 19, 2013. The pieces are currently on exhibit at the Center’s Gallery at 21 West Main Street, Pulaski, Virginia. The awarding of certificates and pins is Sunday, February 17, 2013 from 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.

The gold key pieces compete nationally for gold and silver medals, cash awards and scholarships; adjudication nationally will be complete by late February and winners will be announced and notified in mid March.

Middle Schools with winning entries include: Cave Spring Middle School, Glenvar Middle School and Hidden Valley Middle School.

High Schools with winning entries include: Blacksburg High School, Burton Center for Arts & Technology, Cave Spring High, Chilhowie High School, Glenvar High School, Hidden Valley High School, Marion Senior High, Northside High, Patrick Henry High, Pulaski County High and William Byrd High. This year’s 5 American Visions Nominees are from Blacksburg High School, Burton Center for Arts & Technology and Marion Senior High.

Roanoke County Public Schools students took two of the top five awards for the Scholastic Art competition this year.  Roanoke County students also took 116 out of the 253 total awards. 

Awards by School:                                       Gold Keys            Silver Keys                Honorable Mention

Grand total of awards 253

Submitted by Chuck Lionberger