“Last year was the first time we entered [the Scholastic Art Awards competition] since I’ve been here, and I was thrilled that we won an honorable mention, a singular honorable mention. Then this year when we won five gold keys, two silver keys, and four honorable mentions, I was thrilled beyond belief,” says Owen Riley, the talented, beloved photography and digital media teacher at Christ Church Episcopal School.

Mr. Riley is not the only one impressed by the students’ performance this year. Christ Church Episcopal students have wowed everyone with their performance in the 2015 Scholastic Art Awards competition. The Scholastic Art Awards are some of the most prestigious art awards in the nation and 12 Christ Church students have been recognized for their submissions.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards began as a competition solely focused on writing with a mere $5 prize in 1923. This year, almost 100,000 American teens submitted over 185,000 entries and the art students at Christ Church, 10 of them altogether, took home 12 awards in photography, digital art, and painting. The 2015 awards season has been the best of any year for the Christ Church arts department. Though no awards were won in the writing category, the Gold Key Winners, Silver Key Winners, and Honorable Mentions in the photography, digital art and painting categories showed all of the great work that is being done within the CCES art programs.

One notable winner from CCES was senior, Ana Rooke. Rooke won a Silver Key for her Digital Art entry titled “Sky Lenticular” and two Honorable Mentions for her other Digital Art entries titled “Hot Tub Lenticular” and “Shark Lenticular”. She entered three pieces into the photography and digital art category and was recognized by the Scholastic Art Awards foundation for each one of her entries.

Scholastic states that only about 6% of entries receive a Gold Key, and five Christ Church photography students that is less than 6,000 of the entries. Christ Church’s 6 gold key winners were all photography students except for one, junior, Candy Zhou, who won in the painting category for her piece titled “Fleur”. Of the photography Gold Key winners, Senior, Isabel Pentaleri, won for her piece titled “vision”, junior Kat Davis won for her piece titled “Flower”, freshman Alston Lewis won for his piece titled “Flow”, sophomore Thomas Prosperini won for his piece titled “The Shore”, and senior Wesley Wavro won for her piece titled “Blood Moon”. These Gold Key winners will advance to the national level of the competition.

The number of Gold Key winners, Silver Key winners, and even Honorable Mentions this year are highly impressive and shows the level of excellence that CCES students are held to.

Mr. Riley expressed his excitement saying “It’s so exciting to see the level of work that our Christ Church art students are doing, and it just says a lot about the quality of students. I am very very excited and just thrilled!”