St. Mary’s Academy senior Fiona Bayh and her claymation animation, Penguin Holiday, have won a national Silver Key Award in The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards 2007. Previously, Bayh won a Gold Key Award at the regional competition and her national Silver Key Award recognizes her high achievement in the category of animation.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards offer early recognition of creative teenagers and scholarship opportunities for graduating high-school seniors. The Awards are national in scope and administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. The process begins across the country as young artists and writers submit creative works of art and writing to a network of affiliate programs of the Alliance who share the Alliance’s vision to inspire the next generation of artists and writers.
The selection panels for both the regional and national levels of The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards include professional artists, writers, curators, critics, educators and professionals from the nation’s leading creative industries, some of whom are past award recipients. Notable past jurors include: Robert Frost, William Saroyan, Frank McCourt, Kiki Smith, George Plimpton, Korva Coleman, Esmeralda Santiago, Tatiana von Furstenberg, and Bill Murray. Panelists look for works that best exemplify originality, technical proficiency and the emergence of an authentic voice and vision. For an idea of how many qualify for national level review, panels of professional jurors reviewed more than 7,148 works of art and 1,717 manuscripts to select the 1,400 national award recipients in 2006.
“I am very proud of the recognition these awards give to the artistic talents of our students, “says Mitchell. “They demonstrate the quality of our art program, and provide incentive for other students to take art classes and participate in the program in the future. These recognition awards boost self esteem and confidence in the recipients, and put them in a league with well known artists who achieved awards at their age. For the size of our school, we can be proud of Fiona and the regional awards we received.”
Founded in 1859 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, St. Mary’s Academy of Portland, is Oregon’s oldest continuously secondary school and one of 716 all-female schools in the country. The student body represents a diverse background of young women from over 30 urban, suburban, and rural communities in Oregon and Southwest Washington. St. Mary’s Academy is distinguished by its development of the whole person and is the only school in the state to receive three U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools awards.
