By Davi Stuhlsatz

Four multitalented Derby High School seniors interested in pursuing science majors in college were honored for a quite different talent recently – art.

“Emily Hornbeck, Mariah Mendoza, Jessica Onken, and River Crawford had their work accepted into the regional level of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards program,” said Georgia Gregory, their DHS art instructor.

Hornbeck’s and Mendoza’s artwork received the highest award and will go to the national level competition in New York to be judged with work from throughout the U.S.

If accepted, national medalists are celebrated at a prestigious Carnegie Hall ceremony and will have their work showcased in a gallery in New York City.

Artwork by the Derby girls and other Wichita area high school and middle school students is on display through March 11 at the Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition in Wichita’s Center for the Arts.  

Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards are the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers in the U.S., said Gregory.

The contest has been an indicator of talent that continues. Some well known previous winners include Andy Warhol and Tom Otterness, she said.  

“Winning a Scholastic Art and Writing Award brought me from high school in Wichita to art school in New York City,” said Otterness, acclaimed American sculptor, public artist and Scholastic Award alumnus. “It changed the course of my life.”

User Comments

• Congraduations

  "Congraduations to these DHS art students whom won the scholarship"

  Posted by Chad Parker on Feb. 16, 2012