On January 26th, Lilly Smith (’26) was sitting in her regular seat in the Oyster River High School (ORHS) art room. Two of her friends walked through the door and, excitedly looking at her, asked if they could watch her art class. “I had no idea what they meant,” said Smith.
With her fired up friends standing behind her, Smith turned to her teacher, Maria Rosi. Rosi had just sat down in front of her Introduction to Sculpture class and revealed that she was about to announce the winners of the 2023 Scholastic Art competition. “That’s when it clicked,” said Smith.
This year, the Scholastic Art competition candidates found that their submissions allowed for a deep dive into their art forms, and they feel more connected to the art department. For them, the process may have ended but the recognition won’t until March 22, when national award winners will be announced.
The Scholastic Art competition was founded 100 years ago, but the ORHS art department has only been entering student work “very sporadically over a few years,” said Rosi. Any student can enter their work, created both inside and outside of an art class.
Entries are first considered regionally for three awards: Gold Key, Silver Key, and honorable mention. Gold key winners are then automatically considered for the national awards, such as a gold or silver medal.
One of these Gold Key winners was Rose Goldsmith (‘25), who received the award for her set of glass plates, made in Rosi’s introduction to sculpture class. She, like other artists who entered into the competition, didn’t originally plan on doing so. “My piece went through a lot of stages, when I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do for the unit, I wasn’t aware that the Scholastic [competition] was possible. When I was making it, Ms. Rosi let me know she thought my piece had good potential, so I started working from there to make it even better,” said Goldsmith.
Smith said, “I told [Rosi] that I thought I was going to submit my piece, and then we did. It didn’t really have a meaning then, I just was thinking like ‘oh, this looks cool,’ but afterwards I started thinking about what the meaning could have been.”
Other students, like Elliott Orchard-Blowen (’24) find that they want to submit the piece that was created with meaning and intent. Orchard-Blowen’s sculpture is featured in the first image of this article. “It’s probably one of my best pieces. I felt like it showed what I was trying to say, and I didn’t mess up. And, the school is paying for it, so might as well enter since I’m so proud of it. I thought that it would do well within the lines of what they’re looking for,” said Orchard-Blowen.
While the competition doesn’t require meaningful stories included in the formation of each piece, its format of entry requires deeper thought into the submission.
Regardless of the art form, which have different requirements for submission, the format is the same. Each artist enters the information about the piece and the medium, writes an artist statement, and photographs according to regulations. “It’s such a large art competition, but in a way, Scholastic is very specific. They kind of have an angle, their own perspective on what they’re looking for, and you have to reflect on if the piece reflects what they’re looking for,” said Orchard-Blowen.
Not only is it important to realize how the piece might look from a judging standpoint, but the artist also should feel as though the art form portrays their creativity in the way they envisioned. “I think they’re really looking for a dig. Digging deeper into the piece is why some kids get recognition. They have the ability to pull meaning out of their art instead of making something a little more straightforward. It’s been fun looking for that myself,” says Goldsmith.
Rosi estimates that around 24 students in her art classes entered the 2023 competition. The honoring ceremony took place on Sunday, February 11th at ORHS. Prior to the ceremony, Orchard-Blowen said, “I’ve never been to something like this before, and none of us know what it will be like. It’s going to be fun, but I think this is where it stops for most of us. I’ve never heard of anyone around here getting any larger awards.”
While receiving a key and the possibility of winning a national medal is truly something to be admired, Rosi has recognized how incredible it is for all of her students who decided to submit to the contest, which was all for a piece of their creativity that they were proud of.
“I’m celebrating every single student that entered in this contest. I don’t really care who won which award, everything that got entered was excellent work and that’s something I know, and I hope they all know too,” said Rosi.
– Amelia Rury
Mouth of the River 
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