38 Northern New Jersey Student Artists Win National Recognition in 2015 Scholastic Awards

MONTCLAIR, N.J. - April 23, 2015 - PRLog -- The nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers announced the national winners of the 2015 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the country’s longest-running and most prestigious award and recognition program for creative teenagers. The Northern New Jersey region had 38 students awarded national medals from a panel of distinguished judges. The students all submitted their work to the competition through the Montclair Art Museum. The Montclair Art Museum is the sole affiliate sponsor of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in New Jersey, the seventh year MAM has served in this capacity.

         This program year, more than 300,000 works of art and writing were submitted to more than 100 affiliates of the Alliance for regional adjudication. From the outstanding pool of regional Gold Key recipients, an impressive panel of creative-industry experts chose more than 1,900 of the most talented students—representing 47 U.S. states as well as students in Washington, D.C. and American schools abroad—to receive national medals. This year’s list of distinguished jurors included artist Andres Serrano, Warhol Museum Director Eric Shiner, artist Wangechi Mutu and comic artist Dash Shaw. Works were judged on originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal vision or voice. Teachers of national winners were also recognized with awards.

This year’s 38 recipients from the Northern New Jersey District received a total of 41 awards in visual arts on the national level. Portfolio Awards are a selection of up to eight works by seniors that are judged as a unit; other awards are issued by individual artwork and students can earn more than one award. The recipients are:

Portfolio Silver Award (1)

Olivia Yi*, Englewood Cliffs, 12, WOW Art Studio

Gold Medal (11)

ShaylaBurroughs, Bayonne, 12, Bayonne High School

Justin Gu, Mountain Lakes, 10, Mountain Lakes High School

Hyeonjeong Jang, Gainesville, FL, 12, WOW Art Studio

So Young Jang, New York, NY, 11, WOW Art Studio

Jonathan Lee, New Providence, 8, New Providence High School

June Lee, Tenafly, 9, Tenafly High School

Anna Lockhart, Closter, 11, Northern Valley Regional Demarest High School

Nancy Lu, Bridgewater, 10, The Pingry School

Hania Strus, Livingston, 11, Livingston High School

Sayo Watanabe, Elmwood Park, 11, Bergen County Academies

Olivia Yi*, Englewood Cliffs, 12, WOW Art Studio

Silver Medal (27)

Olivia Ackerman, Harrington Park, 11, Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan

TaeHyeon An **, Tallahassee, FL, 12, WOW Art studio

April Blum, Millburn, 12, Millburn High School

Jean Choi, Leonia, 8,   Leonia Middle School

Daniela Coca, Jersey City, 11, Jersey City Arts High School Program

Ryan Corbett, Mendham, 11, West Morris Mendham High School

Melissa Danitz, Chatham, 12, Chatham High School

Veronica Fernandez, Ridgefield Park, 11, Ridgefield Park Junior Senior

High School

Mary Heck, Wyckoff, 12, Bergen County Academies

In Young Huh, Closter, 12, Northern Valley Regional Demarest-High School

Hyun Woo Jin, Warren, 11, The Wardlaw-Hartridge School

Myung Jin Kang, Ridgewood, 12, Academy of the Holy Angels

Chaeyeon Kim, New York, NY, 11, WOW Art studio

Ha Kyoung Kim, Fort Lee, 11, Fort Lee High School

Sarah  Kim, Washington Township, 12, Westwood Junior/Senior High School

Sun Woo Kim, Norwood, 11, Northern Valley Regional High School at

Old Tappan

Ha-won Lee, Fort Lee, 12, Fort Lee High School

Ella McDonald, Montclair, 10, Montclair High School

Jinze Piao, Fort Lee, 12, Fort Lee High School

YingruQiu, East Brunswick, 12, East Brunswick High School

Isabel Sethi, Cranbury, 7, Cranbury Elementary School

Mina Sohn, Old Tappan, 12, North Valley Regional Old Tappan High School

Yi Jun Xia, Princeton, 12, The Lawrenceville School

Michelle Xu, West Windsor, 12, Sharron Art Center

Eric Zhang**, Princeton, 12, Princeton High School

* Olivia Yi earned a Portfolio Silver Award and a Gold Award.

** TaeHyeon An and Eric Zhang earned two Silver Awards.

A complete list of winners across the United States is available at  www.artandwriting.org/2015NationalMedalists.

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 Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Philip Pearlstein and Sylvia Plath. More recently, Stephen King, Richard Linklater, Zac Posen and Lena Dunham won Scholastic Art & Writing Awards when they were teens.

In June, National Award-winning teens from across the country will gather in New York City to attend the National Celebration series of events in their honor, hosted by the Alliance. This celebratory week will kick off on June 5 with the opening of the Art.Write.Now.2015 National Exhibition at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at The New School's Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute’s Pratt  Manhattan Gallery, featuring more than 1,000 Award-winning visual and literary works.