February 8, 2017 – Fort Wayne Museum of Art has announced the regional award recipients of the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Presented by the nonprofit organization, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the country’s longest-running and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for creative students in grades 7–12. This program year, more than 330,000 works of art and writing were submitted to 118 Affiliate regions across the country. Seven hundred one (701) creative teens from Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio received regional honors, including Gold Keys, Silver Keys, Honorable Mentions, and/or American Visions & Voices nominations, from local Affiliate Fort Wayne Museum of Art. A full listing of the winners accompanies this release.
In celebration of this year’s regional recipients a ceremony will be held February 12 at 1:00pm at the Grand Wayne Center in downtown Fort Wayne. Admission is free and the public is welcome to attend. The exhibit is open at FWMoA from February 12-April 9, 2017.
Since the program’s founding in 1923, the Awards have fostered the creativity and talent of millions of students, including renowned alumni who have gone on to become leaders in their fields, including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Philip Pearlstein, and Sylvia Plath. More recently, Stephen King, Richard Linklater, Zac Posen, and Lena Dunham received Scholastic Art & Writing Awards when they were teens.
For Gold Key works of art and writing in the Awards’ 29 categories, including architecture, painting, flash fiction, poetry, printmaking, video game design, and more, the opportunities for recognition will continue when those works are adjudicated again on a national level by a panel of leading creative professionals. National Gold Medalists will be announced in March 2017 and will be honored during a special awards ceremony at the world-famous Carnegie Hall in New York City in June 2017. All National Medal recipients are eligible for a wealth of additional opportunities, such as inclusion in the Art.Write.Now.Tour traveling exhibition and The Best Teen Writinganthology. National Medalist poets are considered for the National Student Poets Program, the nation’s highest honor for young poets presenting original work.
A complete list of 2017 regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Key recipients will available online at artandwriting.org on Wednesday, February 15, 2017.
QUOTES:
“It has been an honor and a privilege to work with some gifted and incredibly dedicated teachers that have served on our Scholastic Advisory Board for the past 13 years. These teachers have inspired me to match their efforts and their dedication to greatness of their students. It is mind-blowing the impact we have made as a collective unit; Being a Top 5 National program 4 years running, being honored at Carnegie Hall in 2013 and the U.S. Department of Education in 2015. Most important, we have helped nurture nationally-recognized talent as they pursue careers in the creative sector, which in Northeast Indiana has grown to over 18,000 jobs. Those accomplishments I share wholeheartedly with these talented teachers whom I love. They have shown me the absolute pinnacle of what humanity can be and are truly the best teachers in the country,” said Max Meyer, Director of Children’s Education at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.
“The Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards is a shining example of how best to engage our youth to innovate and inspire. The diverse array of competitive categories and achievements from influential alumni highlights our region’s ability to contribute on a national scale. PNC values the impact that a thriving arts and cultural scene has in Fort Wayne and we’re excited to support this prestigious initiative alongside our partners at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. Congratulations to the incredible teachers and hard-working students!” said Doug Wood, PNC Regional President for northern Indiana.
“Richard Avedon spoke of his Scholastic Award as ‘the defining moment of my life,’ and we’ve seen this sentiment echoed over the years,” said Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. “It continues to be a privilege to bring students’ voices and visions into the world, and to see how they rise up to the occasion of having their creative work taken seriously. The Scholastic Awards program is an incredible source of inspiration for everyone involved, from participating students, to their educators and families, to our alums. ”
SPONSORS:The Alliance is grateful for its generous sponsors who provide funds to support and produce the Scholastic Awards at the national level: Scholastic Inc., The Maurice R. Robinson Fund, Command Web Offset Co., The New York Times, the New York Life Foundation, The Herb Block Foundation, Blick Art Materials & Utrecht Art Supplies, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Gedenk Movement, Golden Artist Colors, Neiman Marcus, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the ESA Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Circle, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and Amazon Literary Partnership; numerous other individual, foundation, and corporate funders; and, for the National Student Poets Program, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Poetry Foundation, the Bernstein Family Foundation, and the Academy of American Poets.
The Northeast Indiana/Northwest Ohio Regional exhibition, organized by the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, has been sponsored with major support by PNC Bank, with additional support by Indiana Tech, Lawrence Building Corporation, and Boyden & Youngblutt. Media partners include the News Sentinel and Northeast Indiana Public Radio.
The Fort Wayne Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is a funded partner of Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne. This activity made possible, in part, with support from the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
For more information about the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, visit the Scholastic News Room: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/artandwriting.
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