Schools
Hayfield and South County Students Excel at Regional Art Competition
Ngozi Urama of Hayfield and South County's Sara Clarken and Sohaib Abbasi win individual awards
Over 400 middle and high school students from Fairfax County Public Schools students won regional awards in the Scholastic Art Awards competition. On Tuesday evening, Gold and Silver Key winners from Hayfield Secondary High School and South County Secondary School were recognized along with their peers at an awards ceremony at the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College in the Ernst Community Cultural Center.
“What we’re here about tonight is not something that can be measured on a standardized test. It’s not something you can bubble in. It’s something that is our essence and the essence of our young people, something to celebrate with pride and joy because we know that this is something that our community values and we want to nurture it and continue to grow,” said Hunter Mill District School Board member Stuart D. Gibson, one of the speakers for the night.
The competition is a national program that seeks to recognize the achievements of art students in grades 7th through 12th. The students’ teachers selected the submitted works last Fall and all were processed by the program from January through March before they were reviewed by a panel of judges comprised of professional artists and art educators in the Washington, D.C. metro area such as photographers and illustrators, art gallery owners, artist and George Mason University School of Art professor of New Media Mark Cooley and more.
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This year, judges viewed and scored selections based on photographs of the actual artwork rather than viewing it in person.
“[Judges] look for creativity, a unique vision for the student as well as a higher skill level than people would expect, so it’s a really interesting experience to see all that really great work come into one place and you get to look at it as an art teacher and see the signs of all these different schools,” said Aaron Stratten, Fine Arts Resource Teacher with FCPS.
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The panel reviewed more than 165,000 works and 1,677 of those entries came from FCPS students. A total of 171 students won Gold Keys, 141 students won Silver Keys and 136 were awarded Certificates of Merit for their work in one or more of the following categories: drawings, paintings, prints, photographs, ceramics and glass pieces, sculptures, digital art, film and animation, architecture, fashion, jewelry, comic art, design, mixed media, and portfolios.
In addition to being recognized for the Scholastic Art Awards, students also received leadership team awards and scholarship awards. Several Gold Key Portfolio students won scholarship awards from the Arts Council of Fairfax County, Council for the Arts of Herndon/SAIC Technology and the Arts Program, Fairfax Art League, Lorton Arts Foundation, Springfield Art Guild and Vienna Arts Society.
Hayfield Secondary School’s Ngozi Urama’s Self Portrait won the Fairfax County Public Schools School Board Awards for Group Two. South County Secondary’s Sara Clarken won the Cluster V Assistant Superintendent’s Award for her work Alter Metro. The Arts Council of Fairfax County gave out three $1,000 scholarship awards, one of which went to South County Secondary’s Sohaib Abbasi.
All Gold Key winners are entered into the national Scholastic Art Awards competition. Those winners are announced in April. A full list of regional winners, their schools, and titles of their work can be found here. The students’ work will be on display in the Ernst Community Cultural Center until Thursday, Feb. 24.
Hayfield Secondary
Rebecca Alvarez
Angelique Durocher
Urama Ngozi
Erika Sanchez
South County Secondary
Sohaib Abbasi
Sydney Adams
Faiza Ali
Jamie Choi
Sara Clarken
Cameron Gahres
Joseph Gautier
Stephanie Goodrich
Patrick Hulse
Cassidy Knarr
Tatyana Krinitsina
Kyle Maternick
Addison Miller
Austin Musfeldt
Nicholas Needham
Jacqueline Nguyen
Miranda Poloncak
Sarah Ross Sarah
Jaclyn Stillman
Christopher Sullivan
Nicole Thomas
Alex Torrico
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