Ellis students win national Scholastic Art awards
Three Ellis students have won awards at the National Scholastic Arts and Writing awards, proving once again the power of The Ellis School to provide unparalleled excellence in arts education. Ellis sophomore Talia Leshko won a gold medal for her painting Shana. Senior Eleni Contis won a silver medal for her work Five Stacked Serving Bowls in the ceramics and glass category. Junior Zoe Merrell was awarded a silver medal for her sculpture entitled Hand.
Talia's gold-medal winning work will be displayed at the Art.Write.Now National Celebration and exhibition in New York City, which opens June 5, 2014 at Parsons The New School for Design and the Pratt Manhattan Gallery. Talia will also attend a special awards ceremony on June 6, which will be live-webcasted from the world-famous Carnegie Hall.
The works by Talia, Eleni and Zoe were among the among the outstanding pool of regional Gold Key-winning works, which were judged by an impressive panel of creative-industry experts. These artists, authors, critics, educators and skilled professionals blindly judged works based on originality, technical skill and the emergence of a personal vision or voice—the original three criteria of the program’s founding in 1923. This year's list of distinguished jurors included Andres Serrano (artist), Edwidge Danticat (writer), Michael Raisler (producer), Kay WalkingStick (artist), Jane Cohan (gallery owner), David Krasnow (“Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen”), Alison Elizabeth Taylor (artist) and Stephen Savage (illustrator).
Ellis and the 2014 regional Scholastic Art Awards: Ellis students had an incredible showing at the regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Of the 850 works by students in grades 7- 12 selected for Scholastic’s regional exhibition at LaRoche College, 101 artworks—that is 12% of all Scholastic Art Awards given in our region—were created by Ellis students. These 75 Ellis students were awarded an impressive 16 Gold Keys, 28 Silver Keys, and 57 Honorable Mentions.
“The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards serve as clear validation of young artists’ and writers’ creative talent, persistence and promise in their respective fields,” said Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the administrator of the Scholastic Awards in a March 18 press release. “It is our honor to share in these defining moments of achievement for our nation’s teens and to elevate their unbelievable talent on the local, regional and national levels. We see it as a privilege to support them on their journey to becoming artists, writers, designers, doctors, business owners or any aspiration they are determined to realize.”
About the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
For 91 years, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have fostered the creativity and talent of millions of students through recognition, exhibitions, publications and scholarships. Alumni of the Scholastic Awards have gone on to continue their education at many of the top colleges and universities across the country, including Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Parsons The New School for Design, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University and Columbia University. Since its founding, the Awards program has identified the early promise of some of our nation’s most exceptional visionaries, including alumni such as Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Philip Pearlstein, Sylvia Plath and John Updike, all of whom won when they were teens. More recently, Stephen King, Myla Goldberg, Zac Posen and Lena Dunham have become celebrated alumni of the program.
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The works by Talia, Eleni and Zoe were among the among the outstanding pool of regional Gold Key-winning works, which were judged by an impressive panel of creative-industry experts. These artists, authors, critics, educators and skilled professionals blindly judged works based on originality, technical skill and the emergence of a personal vision or voice—the original three criteria of the program’s founding in 1923. This year's list of distinguished jurors included Andres Serrano (artist), Edwidge Danticat (writer), Michael Raisler (producer), Kay WalkingStick (artist), Jane Cohan (gallery owner), David Krasnow (“Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen”), Alison Elizabeth Taylor (artist) and Stephen Savage (illustrator).
Ellis and the 2014 regional Scholastic Art Awards: Ellis students had an incredible showing at the regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Of the 850 works by students in grades 7- 12 selected for Scholastic’s regional exhibition at LaRoche College, 101 artworks—that is 12% of all Scholastic Art Awards given in our region—were created by Ellis students. These 75 Ellis students were awarded an impressive 16 Gold Keys, 28 Silver Keys, and 57 Honorable Mentions.
“The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards serve as clear validation of young artists’ and writers’ creative talent, persistence and promise in their respective fields,” said Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the administrator of the Scholastic Awards in a March 18 press release. “It is our honor to share in these defining moments of achievement for our nation’s teens and to elevate their unbelievable talent on the local, regional and national levels. We see it as a privilege to support them on their journey to becoming artists, writers, designers, doctors, business owners or any aspiration they are determined to realize.”
About the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
For 91 years, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have fostered the creativity and talent of millions of students through recognition, exhibitions, publications and scholarships. Alumni of the Scholastic Awards have gone on to continue their education at many of the top colleges and universities across the country, including Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Parsons The New School for Design, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University and Columbia University. Since its founding, the Awards program has identified the early promise of some of our nation’s most exceptional visionaries, including alumni such as Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Philip Pearlstein, Sylvia Plath and John Updike, all of whom won when they were teens. More recently, Stephen King, Myla Goldberg, Zac Posen and Lena Dunham have become celebrated alumni of the program.
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