The 2015 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards winners exhibit will open on Friday, Sept. 25, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The exhibit features 60 works of 2- and 3-D art by award-winning students in grades 7-12 from across the country and a second exhibit comprising visual art works by award-winning students from the Scholastic affiliate at Fort Wayne, Indiana. In addition, Scholastic Gold Award winner for writing Monique Taylor will read from her work, and the 2015 award-winning student films will be shown prior to the opening. The ceremony will be at the U.S. Department of Education's headquarters building in Washington, D.C., to honor the work of these young writers, visual artists, and filmmakers, along with their teachers and families.
Monique Chism, the Education Department's director of student achievement and school accountability, will deliver keynote remarks at the beginning of the ceremony. She 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 and Writers; Jeffrey Deane Hall, art teacher at the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School in Richmond, Virginia, artist, and 2015 Golden Educator Resident; and Taylor. Collectively, the speakers will present their thoughts on the arts' place at the center of learning in schools.
The works are from among those of the 2,000 National Medalists selected from among some 300,000 submissions to this year's competition. They join an impressive legacy of Scholastic Awards recipients, including Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Sylvia Plath, Richard Avedon, Truman Capote, Zac Posen, and Kay WalkingStick. The Scholastic works will be on view through August 2016, and the exhibit from Ft. Wayne through October 2015.
The Department of Education's Student Art Exhibit Program, now in its 12th year, features visual, literary, and performing art created by students in U.S. and international schools pre-K through professional art school. The program provides students and teachers an opportunity to display creative work from the classroom in a highly public place that honors their work as an effective path to learning and knowledge for all.
Note: Media who want to attend should RSVP to [email protected].