Monique Chism, director of student achievement and school accountability, will deliver keynote remarks at the opening of the exhibit of art works by winners of the 2013 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, sponsored by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, on Friday, Sept. 13 at the U.S. Department of Education headquarters building in Washington, D.C. The ceremony will honor the work of some 55 visual artists from across the country, with a special exhibit of 26 works from Massachusetts winners.
More than 150 special guests will be in attendance, including student award winners, their families and their teachers. The works are from among those of the 1,200 winners selected from 250,000 submissions to this year’s competition for middle through high school students. Also celebrated at the opening will be the 2013 writing, and film and animation award winners being featured at the Department along with the visual arts winners. All of the works will be on view through August 2014. Past winners include Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Joyce Carol Oates and Robert Redford.
Chism will be joined by Rachel Goslins, executive director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities; Virginia McEnerney, executive director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers; Carlos Molina, photography teacher at Abraham Lincoln High School in New York City and a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards alumnus; and 2013 Scholastic Writing Award Winner Anthony DeSantis, a graduate of the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, who will read from his works. Students, art and writing teachers, and other guests from the education and art fields will also be in attendance.
Two workshops and a film screening of the 2013 national medalists will take place at the Department before the opening, from 9:30.to 10:45 a.m. The first workshop for students, given by Writopia, will be on storytelling. The second workshop will provide professional development for teachers, some of whom will give guidance to other teachers on how to enhance learning through arts in school. The film screening is open to all.