The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers have announced the national award recipients of the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the nation's longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens, and two Darlington seniors were among the honorees.
JC Wang (‘17) received a Gold Medal in the future new category for his work titled “Burn Down The Reminiscence” and a Silver Medal for another future new piece, “Containment.” Matthew McConnell received a Silver Medal in photography for “Sprint.”
“I am thrilled to receive these two national medals,” remarked Wang. “The honor is significant to me because they rewarded me based on the two experimental artworks I did. Instead of using a more traditional medium such as oil paint or pencils, I experiment with other materials such as roof tiles and newspapers. By burning the newspapers, I wanted to question the relationship between our memory and the past. If we burn down our memory, are we burning down the past as well? I love making these artworks because they are more thought provoking and visually appealing.”
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7–12. National Medalist art and writing is displayed during the annual Art.Write.Now. National Exhibition in New York City.
The creative seniors featured in this exhibition follow in the footsteps of past Scholastic Awards recipients Andy Warhol, John Baldessari, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Edward Sorel, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, Ken Burns, Kay WalkingStick, and many other notable artists and writers.
"Our wonder and amazement at the creative output of our country's youth—and the dedication of our extraordinary educators—never ceases, and this year is no exception," said Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the nonprofit organization that presents the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. "The young people being recognized today for the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are to be celebrated for their creative and critical thinking, their bravery in telling their own stories on their own terms, and their inventiveness in recording and recreating their worlds. Watch closely, because among this 2,500 are members of the next generation of great American artists and writers."
Within the Awards' 29 categories, which include poetry, photography, sculpture, humor, editorial cartoons, and video game design, a record-breaking 330,000 works of art and writing were submitted for adjudication at the regional level this year. A complete list of the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national recipients is available at www.artandwriting.org/2017NationalMedalists.
