Six North Dakota teens have received national awards in the 2018 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7-12. Winners were announced by the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers on March 13.
Within the awards’ 29 categories—which include poetry, photography, sculpture, humor, editorial cartoons and video game design—a record-breaking 346,000 works of art and writing were submitted for adjudication at the regional level this year.
“For 95 years, the awards have identified the creative promise of visionaries like Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Stephen King, Kay WalkingStick and Zac Posen,” said Virginia McEnerney, executive director of the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. “We celebrate these innovative teens as members of the next generation of great American artists and writers.”
In North Dakota, 386 works were submitted and 133 received Gold Key, Silver Key or Honorable Mention Awards at the state level. A total of 27 Gold Key winners from North Dakota were forwarded to the national level for adjudication. Of those, six state teens received national awards:
• Jakob Bloomquist of Maple Valley High School (educator Julie Kaspari) in Tower City received the American Visions Award for his untitled photograph.
• Olivia Drake of Fargo Davies High School (educator Lindsay Seeling) received the American Voices Award and a Gold Medal for the short story “First Steps to Freedom.”
• Jude Dill of Fargo Davies High School (educator Jazmyne Reinke) won a Silver Medal in photography for the work titled “Thoughts.”
• Olivia Data of Horizon Middle School (educator David St. Peter) in Bismarck received a Gold Medal for the poem “Dream.”
• Ainsley Sabo of Horizon Middle School (educator David St. Peter) in Bismarck received a Gold Medal for the personal essay “The Color in Black and White Films.”
• Sana Kathawala of Horizon Middle School (educator Kelly Moorman) in Bismarck received a Silver Medal for the science fiction story “Enter the Woods.”
“This is the largest number of national awards received by North Dakota teens since the Red River Valley Writing Project and Plains Art Museum began partnering to serve as the state affiliate of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards four years ago,” said Kelly Sassi, director of the Red River Valley Writing Project at NDSU. “I am proud of these student award winners and their educators and hope they will attend the national ceremony in New York City on June 7.”
National Gold Portfolio, Gold Medal and Silver Medal with Distinction recipients are scheduled to be recognized at the national ceremony June 7 at Carnegie Hall.
In addition, more than 1,000 of the top Scholastic Art and Writing Awards visual and literary works will be displayed in the “Art.Write.Now” 2018 national exhibition June 1-10 at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons School of Design at The New School, and Pratt Institute’s Pratt Manhattan Gallery in New York.
For more information, contact Sassi at kelly.sassi@ndsu.edu or 701-318-2452.
Photos of the North Dakota awards event are available on shutterfly.