Sarah Wilkinson, a senior at Lakeside High School, has been awarded a $2,000 scholarship for her submission to the Thea Foundation's 2015 Visual Arts Scholarship Competition.
Wilkinson placed seventh in the competition. Area seniors Brooksie Morales, Hot Springs High School, and Serena Garcia, Centerpoint High School, received honorable mention recognition.
More than 300 submissions from students across the state were judged at the Thea Foundation in North Little Rock on Jan. 24. The panel of judges included working artists Carly Dahl, Dustyn Bork and Mia Hall. Bork and Dahl are professors at Lyon College in Batesville. Hall is a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
A release from the foundation said judges spent hours studying the artwork. The panel selected 10 scholarship winners and five honorable mentions from the senior category. Another 10 students in the juniors category were selected for cash prizes of $100 each.
Artwork submitted to the competition was based on the theme, "What Detail Light Reveals." Wilkinson submitted a drawing of a child's face.
"Light can reveal more than just the physical details, dirt and grime, on a child's disheartened face," read the description of her piece. "If the eye could look at a face and see humanity, light would expose the poverty that is too often overlooked. Light reveals the child in the shadows who has forgotten what it means to be clean and desperately needs a glimpse of shining hope."
Submissions are judged only by the quality of the work. School grades, test scores and desired field of major are not required by students to be eligible for awards.
Three of the top four winners are students at North Little Rock High School. Heather Jackson, of Caddo Hills High School, received a $3,000 scholarship for her third-place submission.
The Thea Foundation has awarded nearly $2 million in scholarships to Arkansas students since its inaugural scholarship competition in 2002. Scholarships were only awarded for visual arts, but competitions have expanded to include performing arts, film, creative writing, fashion design and poetry slam.
The foundation partners with every four-year college in the state, one technical college and several institutions outside of Arkansas, who match or exceed a student's scholarship if the student chooses to attend one of the institutions. Students can apply their Thea scholarships at any school.
Three more registration deadlines for upcoming scholarship competitions loom in March. The performing art, visual arts and creative writing submissions were due in January.
The deadline for fashion design is March 2, slam poetry is March 16 and the film deadline is March 27. Information about the competitions is available at http://www.theafoundation.org/scholarships.
The winners of each of the six competitions will be honored at an award ceremony on May 3.
Thea has also distributed more than $1 million in art supplies to underfunded schools and implemented programs throughout the state to provide creative experiences for Arkansas students. Hot Springs High School and Hot Springs Middle School received a donation of $3,500 worth of dance shoes and attire in October for students in grades 7-12.
Local on 01/31/2015