Post updated at 8:07 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3:
Lawrence High School students are celebrating success in a prestigious regional art competition, and many of their works will advance to the national level.
Seventeen LHS students earned nearly 60 awards in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards midwest regional competition, announced late last week. Their grand total of 57 this year surpasses the 39 awards they and their classmates netted last year.
Their honors include 22 Gold Keys, which represent the top 5% of entries, according to teacher Todd Poteet. Their works were selected from more than 4,000 entries “by some of the foremost leaders in the visual arts,” Poteet said in an email sharing the news.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
“Jurors look for works that exemplify the Awards’ core values: originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision,” Poteet said.
Please support
The Lawrence Times!
Subscribe here.
Lawrence High School students Leila Albaugh, Mimi Bear Don’t Walk, Kaiea Blum, Lola Brown, Fatima Elshekhi, Becca Goulter, Lily Havener, Wren Jay, Ari Kamat, Willow Marable, Kunmi Oluseye-Aare, Virgil Mock, Zoe Peterson, Rilo Schulz, Lynorah Roberts, Simn Robinson, and Addison Tomlinson “can now add their names to the impressive list of Scholastic winners that include notable artists: Ezra Jack Keats, Richard Avedon, Philip Pearlstein, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Red Grooms, and John Currin among many others,” Poteet said.
The students’ teachers are Emily Markoulatos, ceramics and jewelry; Angelia Perkins, photography; and Poteet, drawing and painting.
They are “are thrilled by the students’ success, but not surprised,” Poteet said.
“Each student spent countless hours in and out of the studio creating work for this competition and the hard work shows,” Poteet said.
Laken Halverstadt, a senior at Free State High School and student of ceramics teacher Jacob Lewis, won a Gold Key portfolio honor, according to results posted online.
LHS students Attia Elser, Baden Masenthin and Tomlinson earned honorable mentions, and Bishop Seabury Academy student Alice Pulsinelli earned a Silver Key and two honorable mentions, in the competition’s writing awards. Their works were selected from among more than 700 entries across Kansas and Missouri.
The Gold Key regional winners will proceed to the national finals in New York City. National awards will be announced in late March, according to the competition’s website.
If local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat — get the latest news from the Times delivered to your inbox:
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
This post is by the Lawrence Times news team.
If you have news tips, questions, comments, concerns, compliments or corrections for our team, please reach out and let us know what’s on your mind. Email us at Hello@LawrenceKSTimes.com (don’t forget the KS!), or find more contact info and a quick contact form at LawrenceKSTimes.com/contact.
Follow us so you won’t miss the local news that matters most to you:
Latest Lawrence news:
August Rudisell/Lawrence Times
Chloe Anderson/Lawrence Times
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
Molly Adams/Lawrence Times
