More than 400 students of the middle and high schools of Fairfax County Public Schools won regional awards in the 2011 Scholastic Art Awards competition. Winners from Westfield and Centreville high schools and Mountain View Alternative, among other schools were honored among their peers at an awards ceremony at the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College on last Tuesday night.

One of the Hunter Mill District school board members, Stuart D Gibson said that what they were present for, was not something that can be measured on a standardized test. He said that was something that is their spirit and the essence of their young generation, something to celebrate with pleasure and joy because they know that this is something that their community values and they want to nurture it and continue to grow.

The Scholastic Art Awards competition is a national program that seeks to recognize the achievements of art students in grades 7th through 12th. The teachers selected the submitted the works of art from students last Fall and all were processed by the program from January through March; before they were reviewed by judges panel comprised of professional artists, and art educators in the Washington, metro area such as illustrators and photographers, artists, art gallery owners, and George Mason University School of Art professor of New Media Mark Cooley and more.

A Fine Arts Resource Teacher with FCPS, Aaron Stratten, said that judges look for creativity, a unique idea for the student as well as a higher skill level than people would expect. Therefore, it’s a really interesting experience to see all that really great work come into one place and every one get to look at it as an art teacher and see the signs of all these different schools.

The Judges panel reviewed more than one hundred thousand art works, in which 171 students won Gold Keys, 141 students won Silver Keys and 136 were awarded Certificates of Merit for their work in one or more of the following categories: paintings, drawing, prints, photographs, sculptures, glass pieces, ceramics, digital art, film and animation, architecture, fashion, jewelry, comic art, design, and mixed media.

Kelsey Kallapos of Centreville High School won the Superintendent’s Award for group two. The Lorton Arts Foundation selected Tara Kalaf of Westfield High School as their $1,000 scholarship award winner and Fairfax Art League also selected Westfield High’s Marika Emmanuel as their $500 scholarship award winner.

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