Two art departments can celebrate national gold and silver medal recipients. The Visual Arts and Literary Arts departments claimed seven students to the honors received in the 2023 National Scholastic Art and Writing Competition. Works of these students were juried at the regional level (Mississippi). Top winners were then chosen to be juried at the national level. This prestigious competition is held annually. (See also: MSA Visual Artists Receive 135 Scholastic Awards in 2023 Competition | MSA Literary Student Writers Capture 121 Scholastic Writing Awards)
NATIONAL AWARD WINNERS
FRONT ROW (L-R): Genoveva Arizaga, a senior visual artist from Paris, MS; Elizabeth Smith, a senior visual artist from Brookhaven, MS; Jordan Brown, a senior literary artist from Hazlehurst, MS. BACK ROW (L-R): Taylor Herron, a senior visual artist from Madison, MS; Worth Novinski, a senior visual artist from Columbia, MS; Elliot Nix, a senior literary artist from Laurel, MS; Simone Smith, a senior literary artist from Byram, MS.
Worth Novinski
“Man Held in the Palm of Time”
GOLD MEDAL
Worth Novinski
“What Summer used to mean”
GOLD MEDAL
Simone Smith
“Sweet Escape”
GOLD MEDAL
Jordan Brown
“My Evergreen”
GOLD MEDAL
Elliot Nix
“From Icarus, To the Sun”
SILVER MEDAL
Jordan Brown
“Willow”
SILVER MEDAL
Genoveva Arizaga
“El Rio”
SILVER MEDAL
Elizabeth Smith
“Rot! The C.N.S”
SILVER MEDAL
Taylor Herron
“Poolside”
SILVER MEDAL
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. The Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to identify students with exceptional artistic and literary talent and present their remarkable work to the world through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The Awards give students opportunities for recognition, exhibition, publication, and scholarships. In 2022, students across the United States and Canada entered more than 260,000 original works in 28 different categories of art and writing.
According to their web site, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards recognize student achievement in the visual and literary arts in 28 categories, including drawing and illustration, photography, flash fiction, poetry, film and animation, journalism, and more. Since the program’s founding in 1923, the Awards have fostered the creativity and talent of millions of students, including renowned alumni who have gone on to become leaders in their fields, including Amanda Gorman, Tschabalala Self, Stephen King, Kay WalkingStick, Charles White, Joyce Carol Oates, and Andy Warhol. An Award signifies to parents, teachers, the community and colleges that a student is an accomplished artist or writer. The Awards offer opportunities for creative teens to earn recognition, exhibition, publication and scholarships. In the 2022 program year, 22 high school seniors received the Gold Medal Portfolio, which includes a $10,000 scholarship. Each work of art and writing is blindly adjudicated, first locally through the more than 100 affiliates of the Alliance, and then nationally by panels of judges comprised of renowned artists, authors, educators and industry experts. Works are judged on originality, technical skill, and emergence of personal vision or voice.
Award recipients will be honored at Carnegie Hall in New York, this summer, for the national awards ceremony.