Western Region Awards won by two Friday Harbor High School Art Students
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Submitted by San Juan Island School District.
Congratulations to Friday Harbor High School Art students Islay Ross and Lily Rock who both won awards at the prestigious Western Regional Scholastic Arts & Writing Competition. The Western Region includes seven Western states and is considered one of the most competitive regions in an annual national competition sponsored by the Alliance for Young Writers and Artists. Junior Lily Rock received a Silver Key Award for her mixed media piece titled “Growing Pains”, and Junior Islay Ross won a Gold Key Award for her painting titled “The Kitchen Sink”. Islay’s gold winning art will move onto the national competition where her work will be evaluated against the most talented young artists in the country and internationally.
Since 1923, The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers has identified teenagers with exceptional artistic and literary talent to bring their work to a national audience. In the last five years alone, students submitted nearly 900,000 original works of art and writing and only a small percentage of these receive the designation of “Gold Key”, “Silver Key”, or “Honorable Mention”.
Any public, private, parochial or home-school student in grades 7 – 12 in the U.S., Canada or an American school abroad may participate in the Awards for the chance to earn scholarships and have their works exhibited or published.
“This juried work is evaluated on originality, technical skill and the emergence of a personal voice or vision,” explained Friday Harbor High School Art Instructor Andrew Anderson, “This is a tremendous honor and recognition of the hard work and dedication of our students. I want to thank our community for their support of our school art program. A special thanks to the San Juan Island Public School Foundation whose consistent support has provided the essential art materials our students need. Talented kids like Lily and Islay are clearly worth supporting.
