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MLWGS earns 69 honors with the 2023 Scholastic Art Awards

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2023 Scholastic Art Awards

The MLWGS Visual Arts Department is very excited to announce that our talented students were recently honored by having their work selected in the regional 2023 Scholastic Art competition.   This is a highly competitive annual art competition that had 1878 art entries from around the region. 

MLWGS students had one of their best years ever with  69 total awards and the most portfolio winners from ANY school, recognizing Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School as one of the region’s top schools for the Arts.  

69 total awards

28 Gold Keys awards  including 3 Gold Key Portfolios and 1 American Visions Nominee

14 Silver Keys awards including 2 Silver Key Portfolios

27 Honorable Mentions including 4 Honorable Mention Portfolios

Two Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School students received special recognition for their work in this show.  

Senior, Kori Benjamin, received an American Visions Award nomination for her drawing, Girls with Guns.  Additionally, senior, Gray Pershing’s sculpture, Stargirl, was chosen for the VisArts Artistic Merit Award.  

A portfolio award is very difficult to achieve as it requires a comprehensive body of work expressing a unique artistic voice. Maggie Walker Governor’s School received the most portfolio awards of any school in the region.  Please join us in congratulating the following SENIORS who received received special recognition for their portfolios.  

V Bryson – Gold Key Art Portfolio with additional awards of 1 Gold Key in Mixed Media and 1 Honorable Mention in Extended Projects

Reade Henley – Gold Key Art Portfolio with additional awards of 1 Silver Key and 1 Honorable Mention for Fashion

Julia Turner – Gold Key Photography Portfolio with additional awards of 1 Gold Key and 1 Silver Key for Photography 

Ala Killen – Silver Key Photography Portfolio, Honorable Mention Art Portfolio, with additional awards of 2 Silver Keys for Painting, 1 Silver Key for Photography, and 3 Honorable Mentions for Photography

Ananya Sairaman – Silver Key Art Portfolio with additional awards of 4 Gold Keys for Drawing, Printmaking, and Painting

Kori Benjamin – Honorable Mention Art Portfolio, with additional award of 1 Gold Key and American Visions Award Nominee  in Drawing and 1 Gold Key in Painting

Cameron Golden – Honorable Mention Art Portfolio with additional award of 1 Silver Key in Painting

Libbie Sydnor – Honorable Mention Photography Portfolio with additional award of 1 Honorable Mention in Sculpture

Gold and Silver Key winners will have their work displayed at the Visual Art Center of Richmond from Feb. 3- Feb. 20th.  Gold Key works will be juried in New York for consideration for National Awards.     

Congratulations to the following students who were recognized with individual Gold Keys and/or Silver Keys:

Lucie Bouton – Gold Key in Photography and Silver Key in Sculpture

Tyler DeHaven – Gold Key in Digital Art

Hannah Fetter – Gold Key in Photography and Honorable Mention in Ceramics

Charlie Goodman – Gold Key in Photography

Emil Josefiak – Gold Key in Printmaking and Gold Key in Mixed Media

Izzy List – Gold Key in Painting

Mercedes Luna – Gold Key in Drawing and another Gold Key in Printmaking

Shorya Malani – Gold Key in Photography

Cecilia Oseguera – Gold Key and Honorable Mention in Painting

Gray Pershing – Two Gold Keys and an Honorable Mention in Sculpture

Allyson Phillips- Two Gold Keys and an Honorable Mention in Photography

Brielle Telfair – Gold Key in Mixed Media

Carson Wang – Gold Key and an Honorable Mention in Film and Animation

Ananthu Anish – Silver Key in Drawing

Ella Cable – Silver Key in Photography

Matilda Frantz – Silver Key in Drawing

Xavier Julien – Silver Key in Digital Art

Sadie McMahon – Silver Key in Design

The Scholastic Arts competition is extremely competitive.  All recognitions celebrate the quality of these student works.   Please join me in congratulating these students who were recognized with Honorable Mention awards for their work:

Colleen Blakeney – HM in Photography

Elizabeth Eckstein- HM in Photography

Sadie Hall – HM in Fashion

Muriel Lewis – HM in Design

Ryan Marks – HM in Photography

Owen McDonald – HM in Photography

Kaysen Mills – HM in Photography

Mattias Parandeh – HM in Photography

Lambrini Phillos – HM in Painting

Sibi Sundar – HM in Photography

Olympia Theofanos – HM in Photography

Congratulations to all these talented students!  Go Dragons!