New York,
NY (June
6,
2006) --
Fourteen hundred of the nation’s most talented young artists and writers will be honored in New York City this Thursday as recipients of The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a national program that offers early recognition of creative teenagers and scholarship opportunities for graduating high-school seniors. The recipients’ achievements will be celebrated by educators, industry leaders, family and patrons, along with five-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close, New York Times best-selling author of The Perfect Storm and A Death in Belmont Sebastian Junger and singer, songwriter and One Tree Hill star Tyler Hilton during a ceremony at Carnegie Hall.
Since Scholastic founded the program in 1923, The Awards have honored distinguished past recipients such as Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, Robert Redford, Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Cy Twombly, Joyce Maynard, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Pearlstein and Bernard Malamud, who received recognition when they were in high school.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, a non-profit organization, bring outstanding visual art and writing created by teenagers to a national audience by showcasing their remarkable work and encouraging their creative journey and career development. As part of the celebration, student artwork will be on public display at the Alliance Gallery in New York City from June 8-9, 2006, before a larger exhibition travels to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., 2006. The young artists and writers will also participate in a special workshop series in New York City on Friday, June 9, which includes cultural and career seminars at professional institutions including the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Sotheby’s.
“For eighty-three years, The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have honored the talent of young artists and writers from around the country for their outstanding achievements,” said BJ Adler, executive director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. “We look forward to celebrating the accomplishments of The Award Recipients of 2006 with our distinguished guests and to broadening their horizons through the workshop series, giving them the confidence and encouragement to pursue careers in the arts.”
Each year, The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards receive more than 250,000 works of art and writing, submitted through more than 80 regional affiliate programs across the nation for consideration in 25 categories of art and writing. The entries are evaluated locally and nationally by a panel of jurors comprised of renowned artists, authors, educators, and arts professionals. Notable past and current jurors include Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, William Saroyan, Frank McCourt, Andy Rooney, Judy Blume, KiKi Smith, George Plimpton and Philip Pearlstein.
Since Scholastic founded the program in 1923, more than 13 million of America’s most talented junior high and high school students (grades 7-12) have participated in The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and 2.5 million have been recognized and shared in more than $25 million in cash awards and college scholarships. This year, twelve high-school seniors from around the country were honored with the National Portfolio Gold Award, the highest level of achievement, and will each receive a $10,000 cash award. An additional $1.5 million in tuition scholarships is made available to Portfolio Gold and Portfolio Silver award recipients through The Awards.
About The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and the Alliance
The Awards program continues to provide a platform for creative expression for millions of students across the country as the Alliance brings outstanding visual art and writing created by teenagers to a national audience and encourages their creative journey and career development. In addition to awarding annual scholarships to top portfolio award recipients, the Alliance collaborates with colleges across the country that make an additional $1.5 million in financial aid available to award recipients with exceptional promise. For more information on the Alliance and The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, please visit
www.artandwriting.org.
The Awards program and the work of the Alliance are made possible through the lead support of Scholastic Inc. Generous leadership support is also provided by The Maurice R. Robinson Fund, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust. Presenting Sponsors are The New York Times Company, Accenture, JPMorgan Chase, Command Web Offset, The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, CDW-G and Hewlett Packard.
For more information, log on to
www.artandwriting.org.
**Student interviews, samples of student artwork and a complete list of the 2006 Scholastic Art & Writing Award Recipients are available upon request. **