NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Media Contacts
Michael Gillespie, 973-259-5134
[email protected]
Catherine Mastrangelo, 973-259-5119
[email protected]
NORTH JERSEY STUDENTS RECEIVE PRESTIGIOUS REGIONAL ART AWARDS
IN COMPETITION HELD AT THE MONTCLAIR ART MUSEUM
Regional Gold Winners Exhibit at MAM and Will Compete Nationally
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2012 Honor the Nation’s Most Talented
Young Artists and Writers
MONTCLAIR, NJ, February 13, 2012—The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) announced today
that students from across New Jersey have received prestigious awards for their artwork through
the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the 89-year-old national program that recognizes
outstanding creative teenagers and offers scholarship opportunities for graduating high school
seniors. The program is administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, for which the
Montclair Art Museum is the sole affiliate sponsor in New Jersey, the fourth year MAM has
served in this capacity. The competition at MAM focuses on visual art. Its area of service
includes the counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth,
Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren.
The Montclair Art Museum is one of 115 affiliate organizations nationwide that, in
partnership with the Alliance, conduct the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. At MAM, 27
jurors—artists, curators, and educators—participated in a series of panels over four days,
reviewing 2,800 submissions.
A total of 1,012 creative teens in grades 7–12 submitted art works, representing 150 New
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Jersey towns and cities. The Gold Key Award was awarded to 158 individuals; additionally, 137
received the Silver Award and 158 received Honorable Mention.
Each MAM Gold Key Award recipient will display one work in an exhibition at the
Museum from February 11 to March 11, 2012. All of the Gold Key awarded works, alongside
thousands of entries from other regional affiliate programs across the country, will also be
presented to national panels of creative leaders in New York City to determine which receive the
highest honors. Jurors will be curators from major museums—including MAM’s director, Lora
Urbanelli, who will judge in the Drawing category—leading journalists, gallerists, artists, and
established alumni of the program. Past jurors have included Tony Hawk, Lesley Stahl, Wangechi
Mutu, Bill Murray, Judy Blume, and Nikki Giovanni.
Fifteen graduating high school seniors will be awarded with Portfolio Gold Medals,
which include a $10,000 scholarship for each winner. Additional scholarships are made available
to Portfolio Silver Medalists and through sponsored awards and stipends to summer arts
programs. The Alliance will offer more than $270,000 in direct scholarships and awards this year.
Teachers of award winners also receive recognition, and hundreds of high school senior award
winners are eligible for nearly $4 million in scholarships through a network of more than 60
colleges and universities that recognize the significance of the Awards.
Last year, a MAM regional Gold Medalist, Leonardo Laurenceau, of Jersey City Arts
High School, went on to receive the national Portfolio Gold Award, the highest level of
achievement.
Since 1923, nine million students have been recognized through exhibitions and
publications and have shared in more than $25 million in awards and scholarships. The Scholastic
Art & Writing Awards has a long list of distinguished alumni who rose to the top of their creative
fields since they won their awards in high school, including Andy Warhol, Robert Redford, Sue
Miller, Richard Avedon, Zac Posen, Tom Otterness, Philip Pearlstein, and John Baldessari.
The 2012 award winners will be announced in early spring. For more information about
the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, visit www.artandwriting.org.
About the Museum
The Montclair Art Museum, a notable, community-based institution with an international
reputation, boasts a renowned collection of American and Native American art that uniquely
highlights art making in the United States over the last three hundred years. The collection
includes more than 12,000 objects: paintings, prints, original works on paper, photographs, and
sculpture by American artists from the 18th century to the present, as well as traditional and
contemporary Native American art and artifacts representing the cultural developments of
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peoples from all of the major American Indian regions. The Museum’s education programs serve
a wide public and bring artists, performers, and scholars to the Museum on a regular basis.
MAM’s Yard School of Art is the leading regional art school, offering a multitude of
comprehensive courses for children, teens, adults, seniors, and professional artists.
The Montclair Art Museum is located at 3 South Mountain Avenue in Montclair, N.J.
Information and directions are available on the Museum website, montclairartmuseum.org, or by
calling 973-746-5555. MAM is open Wednesdays through Sundays, Noon – 5 p.m., and closed
on Mondays, Tuesdays, and major holidays. Museum admission is $12 for nonmember adults,
$10 for senior citizens and students with I.D., and free for members and children under 12.
All Museum programs are made possible, in part, by the New Jersey State Council on the
Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and by funds
from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Vance Wall Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge
Foundation, and Museum Members.
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