Scholastic 2018

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7–12. This year, students submitted nearly 350,000 works of visual art and writing to the Scholastic Awards; more than 90,000 works were recognized at the regional level and celebrated in local exhibitions and ceremonies. The top art and writing at the regional level were moved onto the national stage, where more than 2,800 students earned National Medals. National Medalists and their educators will celebrate at the National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers awards nearly $300,000 in direct scholarships annually to top Awards recipients. We also partner with art institutes, colleges, and universities who earmark scholarships for college-bound Scholastic Awards recipients. Gold medal portfolio winners at the national level are often the recipients of these scholarships.

Greenfield high school competes in the California Central Coast region, this year we entered 34 works and two portfolios. The California Central Coast region is comprised of 25 counties, each which quite a few high schools. A total of 4,500 submissions were judged for our region, the largest in the entire Scholastic art competition. A total of 140 different high schools work was awarded, around 670 students were awarded 1,400 awards. For each award level there were: Honorable Mention 729; Silver Key 416; Gold Key 274. Of these works if you look at the amounts 30% of these awards were for photography. Photography is one of 18 categories and has the largest representation in the awards. Awards are judged on originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal vision or voice. This means 100 or so medals were silver medals for photography out of what is likely thousands of entries at the regional level in that category. It is exceedingly hard to be awarded an honorable mention in any category, let alone win an award in the most common category.

This year Joanna Chavez won a silver medal at the regional level for her photograph Last Hurrah, (Pictured below) congratulations Joanna for all your hard work in pursuing your craft and your art. While her work will not continue to the national level it is worth noting its excellence as well as the excellence of all the students in the art program at G.H.S. both entrants and non-entrant alike. Congratulations to Joanna, lets have some Bruins pride and keep making great art!

The Pacific Grove Art Center is proud to exhibit the Silver & Gold Key Winners artwork in the Gill Gallery from March 1-30, 2019. The Exhibit Opening was held on Friday, March 1, 2019 from 7-9 p.m., through the month of March, also known as Youth Art Month. The closing reception and ceremony was on Saturday March 30, 1-4pm, recognized and celebrated all Scholastic winners in attendance (Honorable Mention, Silver Key, Gold Key). All students, families, and educators were invited to attend. This is the second year the event has been held at the Pacific Grove art center and the first year the event for families and winners was held.

The Pacific Grove Art Center is located at: Pacific Grove Art Center, 568 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove, CA 93950