News

Tennessee student receives Scholastic Gold Medal Portfolio

By Suzanne Lynch, Director of Marketing and Development –

Only sixteen high school seniors received the Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards’ highest national honor, the Gold Medal Portfolio, which includes a $10,000 scholarship, and high school senior Megan Cox from Memphis is one of them. She won for her art portfolio “Treading the Water of Life.”

The nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers announced March 14, 2017, the national award recipients of the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7–12. Within the Awards’ 29 categories, which include poetry, photography, sculpture, humor, editorial cartoons, and video game design, a record-breaking 330,000 works of art and writing were submitted for adjudication at the regional level this year.

Other Tennessee Medalists include:

  • Talia Barton, 11, Silver Medal, Photography, Shadows
  • Augusta Bowhay, 12, Gold Medal, Personal Essay & Memoir, Coat of Many Colors
  • Kathleen Collins, 12, Silver Medal, Printmaking, Indonesian Predator
  • Emma Crownover, 12, Gold Medal, Photography, Censored
  • Andrew Cunningham, 7, Gold Medal, American Visions Medal, Film & Animation, what does it mean to run?
  • Kate Cunningham, 12, Gold Medal, Jewelry, Copper Petals
  • Elizabeth Dang, 11, Silver Medal, Poetry, Uncle Sam’s Family Reunion
  • Jenna Davis, 8, Silver Medal, Humor, Mathon and Mom
  • Alyssa Dinkins, 11, Gold Medal, Drawing & Illustration, Evan Peters
  • Ashley Eden, 11, Silver Medal, Drawing & Illustration, Join The Party
  • Henry Hicks, 12, Silver Medal, Poetry, Bombs Away
  • Emily James, 12, Silver Medal, Printmaking, Joy
  • Ellie Lai, 12, Silver Medal, Printmaking, Byodo-In Temple
  • Tram Le, 12, Gold Medal, Drawing & Illustration, Under Pressure
  • Jenna Lowe, 11, Silver Medal, American Visions Medal, Drawing & Illustration, Diving Deeper
  • Martinez Andy, 10, Silver Medal, Drawing & Illustration, Concrete Safari

More than 2,500 teens nationwide walk in the footsteps of program alumni including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Philip Pearlstein, Sylvia Plath, Kay WalkingStick, Ken Burns, Stephen King, Paul Chan, Lena Dunham, Richard Linklater, Zac Posen and Luis Jiménez.

The Tennessee Arts Commission congratulates all the winners on their success and wishes them a bright future in the arts.

A complete list of the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national recipients is available at http://www.artandwriting.org/2017NationalMedalists