Scholastic Art & Writing Awards: A Way to Let Creativity Thrive
As humans, we are inherently creative, albeit some more than others. Our imagination allows us to create artwork such as paintings, drawings, poetry, and more. While expressing our creative side through these avenues is truly fantastic, wouldn't it be great if we could exhibit our work and win awards?
Recognizing students with unique talents in the arts is what the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards aim to do. In this blog post, we will explore the aspects of this competition, awards, famous alums, and more.
What are the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards?
Started in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is the United States' most prestigious art competition for teenagers. If you win, you can receive scholarships, recognitions, exhibitions, and more opportunities.
Submission Categories
There are 28 submission categories, two of which are for graduating seniors only. Some of the more well-known Scholastic Art & Writing Awards categories include painting, sculpture, and poetry. However, there are other, more niche categories, such as jewelry, film and animation, and more. A complete list of the categories and their guidelines can be found on the official website.
Types of Awards
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards offers both regional and national awards. On the regional level, judges evaluate entrees for the Gold Key, Silver Key, Honorable Mention, American Voices Nominee, and American Visions Nominee awards. Those who receive the Gold Key award become national nominees, and judges consider them for the national Gold Medal, Silver Medal, and scholarships.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are given based on these three core values:
Originality: Artwork must be original from resources or similar works used to research.
Skills: These can include how the project was done and other life skills, such as overcoming challenges or solving problems.
Emergence of a Personal Voice or Vision: Honest perspective and out-of-the-box thinking separate from current trends.
The Submission Process
The process for submitting a piece of art is quite simple. First, navigate to the official Scholastic Art & Writing Awards website and create an account. A student or educator can create an account and find their school to submit the work.
The next step is to upload your work. Make sure to keep editing your submission based on feedback from family, educators, and friends before submitting your best work. For art, the submission will be a digital image, after which you can choose your submission category. Document your work along the way for increased chances of winning. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards website provides excellent information on high-quality documentation.
Lastly, you must pay for your entry. The cost is $10 per entry and $30 per portfolio. However, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards offers aid for those who find the fees to be a hindrance to their participation.
The Benefits of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
As previously mentioned, the Scholastic Art & Writing competition offers various participants awards that provide opportunities for publications, exhibitions, and ceremonies. A national award winner can also win scholarships up to $12,500.
These awards can be put on a resume, allowing more doors to open regarding college decisions and art opportunities.
Besides providing personal benefits, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards helps inspire others who view your works. Whether vivid paintings or deeply philosophical writings, these works offer new insight into various world topics and issues.
Tips for Winning the Scholastic Art & Writing Competition
Here are some tips that previous winners of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have provided.
Coming up With an Idea
Based on the core values used to judge entrees, it's crucial to consider subjects you may be interested in. This can be as broad or specific as you'd like, but a great way to get started is by creating a list of likes and dislikes or just generally listing topics you'd like to explore.
Some examples on this list may include:
Favorite book
Biggest fear
Happiest memory
World issue
Least favorite activity
Be sure to write down anything and everything that comes to mind! You can always filter out the ones you don't want later. Some other great brainstorming strategies include making mind maps, word association, and brainwriting. These methods allow you to get more specific from broader ideas, leading to a better submission for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
Solidifying your Work
Once you've developed a basic idea, research to see what has already been done. For art categories, take screenshots and notes on what you've found. These notes can include what you liked about the style of art, aspects you liked and didn't like, materials used, and more.
Once you complete your research, you can create simple sketches, brainstorm possible materials, and receive feedback from family, friends, and educators. However, be sure to remain unique in your ideas versus past works.
For writing, it's important to research to get a thorough background knowledge of the topic and help you find your side of the story. Once you've researched, create an outline to plan the ideas you want to communicate clearly. Lastly, start writing your piece and make constant edits. Ultimately, these strategies will help you succeed in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
Famous Alumni of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
Over the last 100 years, there have been multiple notable alums of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Here are a few of them:
During the 2021 United States Presidential inauguration, Amanda Gormon shared her poem "The Hill We Climb." This empowering, realistic, hopeful poem reflects America's values and the problems we fight against today. In 2016, Gormon won the national Silver Medal award for novel writing.
Marc Brown, a 1963 Scholastic Art & Writing Award alumnus, didn't think to explore an art career until his work was submitted to the competition. Years later, he is known for creating the Arthur books and television series.
Stephen King, famous author of It, Fairy Tale, and The Shining, was also a Scholastic Art & Writing Award alumnus. In 1965, he was a winner in the writing categories.
Bridging the Gap Between Technology and Art
To prepare for competitions such as the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, developing the necessary skillsets and learning more about the various parts of art is vital.
If you're interested in finding the intersection between technology and art, we encourage you to join one of the programs here at Inspirit AI. For example, our AI + Arts and Music or AI + Journalism projects will dive into the behind-the-scenes of music recommendation, sketch designs, and more.
Regardless, expressing our creativity is essential, and our programs here at Inspirit and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards provide multiple opportunities to do so!
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
