Martha’s Vineyard students score top awards for artwork, writing

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Blending in. — Photo by Tova Katzman

Visual arts students at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) captured not only imagination and creativity but also an unprecedented number of awards in the 2011 Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards and the Photo Imaging Education Association (PIEA) international photography competition.

Of 50 pieces entered in the Globe contest, 31 received awards, according to art and photography teacher Chris Baer.

Seniors Tova Katzman, Conor Estes, and Vivian Ewing won gold keys, the competition’s top honor, for their eight-piece senior portfolios. Tova won one gold key for visual arts and another for photography, and Conor and Vivian each won a gold key for photography.

Freshmen Willoe Maynard and Isabel “Issy” Smith, sophomores Eli Dagostino, Lauren Dostal, Sarah Gruner, and Nicole Parkhurst also won a gold key for their photographs. Sophomores Kelsey Dandeneau, Aoife Estes, and Samantha Valley won a silver key for theirs. Junior Truda Silberstein won both a gold and silver key for photography.

Sixteen students earned honorable mentions. They include freshmen Sarah Alexander, Amber Bettencourt, and Sarah Ortlip-Sommers, photography; sophomores Annabelle Hackney, Dana Jacobs, and John Vogel, photography, and Hannah Moore, sculpture; juniors Kelsey DeBettencourt, architecture, Eva Faber, photography, and Hanna Persson and Ian Tripp, photography; and seniors Evan Eagan, photography, Joseph Fournier, drawing, Douglas Fraser, architecture, Tova Katzman, computer graphics, and Courtney Minnehan, ceramics.

The ten gold key winners’ works will be sent digitally to New York City later this month for judging in the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition.

Works by gold and silver key winners will be exhibited at the State Transportation Building gallery in Boston from February 14 through April 8. A duplicate set also is on exhibit in the MVRHS Library Conference Room this month.

Four Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School students also received Boston Globe Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Jess Dupon won one gold key for creative writing and another for essay/memoir writing; Zen Hughes won a silver key for poetry; Zana Van Rooyen won a gold key for a watercolor; and Alistair Rizza won a silver key for graphite on paper.

Gold and silver winners will be formally recognized at an awards ceremony at John Hancock Hall in Boston on March 6, sponsored by the Boston Globe.

This year, junior Shelby Ferry and freshman Sarah Ortlip-Sommers became the first MVRHS students to win honorable mentions in the very competitive PIEA international photography contest.

Shelby’s photo was 1 of only 14 chosen from more than 1,400 photos to receive an award in her category. Shelby’s and Sarah’s photographs will be exhibited at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Imaging 2011 Convention in Las Vegas on September 8-10, 2011.

Afterwards, their photos will be included in an international touring exhibit displayed over the next three years at major conventions and in schools, colleges and museums in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and Canada.

Their photos also will be published in Photo Marketing magazine as well as on PIEA’s website, pieapma.org. PIEA is affiliated with PMA International.