Twenty Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) students have joined the ranks of such luminaries as Andy Warhol, Ken Burns, Robert Redford, and Richard Avedon, who, like them, were winners in their youth of Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Founded in 1923, Scholastic Awards is the nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens.
This year’s MVRHS winners came away with 25 awards in ceramics and glass, digital art, and photography. Six received Gold Keys, the highest honor, followed by 10 Silver Keys and nine Honorable Mentions. The Gold Key works will be exhibited in Boston in the early spring, and then continue to New York City for national judging.
It was inspiring to examine the students’ art with them recently. Each piece reflected the judges’ criteria of originality, technical skill, and unique voice.
In Caiden Gardner’s black-and-white photograph “Final Dance,” a well-dressed young man in an overcoat, holding a briefcase, tries to navigate the harsh wind that prevents him from easily walking into roiling water. Gardner believes the image works because of its duality. “The movement is frantic, even with him in such formal attire.”
In Stella DeBettencourt’s black-and-white photo “Hidden,” a woman stands straight in front of us on a lawn. Arms crossed, she is outfitted in a summer dress, and she covers her face with a massive handful of leaves as though hiding in plain sight: “You can’t see her face, and I cut her off right at the knees, so it gives off a mysterious vibe.” This intangible quality encourages us to think more deeply about the image’s hidden meaning.
All the tonalities, from white to black, in “Take Me to the Lakes” enhance the sensuous quality of Arianna Bonner’s photograph. We come upon a young woman sitting by a lake. With her head bent, the black strands of her hair cascade down her back, echoing the vegetation at the water’s edge. Bonner says about her title, “I felt it was about a person who goes to a place where they find comfort. I want people to think about where they can always go to put their mind at ease.”
Leelyn Thompson’s ceramic and glass “Three Tier” vessel is a stunning example of ingenuity and skill. She fashioned three separate vase-shaped pieces in decreasing sizes on the potter’s wheel, stacking them so they soar upward. Thompson’s liquid colors pour down over incised striations in the clay, drawing attention to its irregular texture, which beckons to be touched: “I’m very pleased with the uniqueness of the pot. I was happy not to get something that looks day-to-day.”
Lulu White created her arresting digital portrait “Seeing Stars” with a program on an iPad that allows her to blend colors as though they are real oil paints or watercolors. White’s mastery of the technology is evident in all the different effects she creates as her subject gazes up into star-laden heavens: “It wasn’t inspired by one particular person, but a combination of many different images I’ve been seeing. I wanted to take advantage of the digital medium to create super-vibrant sunset colors, and for people to get enjoyment from it.”
One of Tessa Schulz’s two photographs, “Vacation Over,” is a humorous take on the typical lyrical Vineyard beach scene. She buried her friend in the sand with just a single arm sticking straight up, seemingly poking through the blue horizon line: “I wanted something unusual. I want it to be something people haven’t seen before.” “The View” is the opposite season: Two lonely chairs on a deck, one occupied by Schulz’s friend with her back toward us, look out over the tumultuous water in the middle of a snowstorm, evoking the essence of a cold Island winter.
Isla Fairstein gazes downward, first at foliage that appears to be “escaping” from a metal drain in “Escape Artist.” The bright plants develop an appealing contrast against the surrounding gray dirt. We then stand above a flooded boardwalk in “Seeping Through.” The transparent, watery surface produces irregular, undulating light lines that play against the woodgrain below to create a liquid abstract composition. “They’re both about nature coming back,” Fairstein explains.
Matthew Macmillan’s squat, bright turquoise bus is like a deer startled in the woods, staring at us amid the bare branches and briars that firmly anchor the incongruous vehicle into stillness. Macmillian hopes the work ignites people’s curiosity.
Hunter Broderick places us directly below a sensuous outcropping of pink flowers budding from the side of an Italian church in “Clinging to Life.” Reaching out into the cloudless blue sky, they epitomize nature’s ability to persevere. He took the photo when visiting Italy. “It puts off quite a message,” Broderick says of the image. “You wonder, Wow, how did that get there? It raises a lot of questions.” Broderick hopes that the work inspires people to see things in different ways. In fact, all 25 works help us view the world more keenly, and provide a glimpse into the fabulous creative minds of our Island’s youth.
The students’ art teacher, Chris Baer, says, “I’ve heard more than once where a kid will say, ‘I’ve won this award as a freshman or a sophomore, and I realized I was good at this. Now I want to study it.’ So winning something like this can shape careers and life trajectories.”
2025 Scholastic winners
Photography
Arianna Bonner, Grade 12, “Take Me to the Lakes,” Gold Key
Hunter Broderick, Grade 10, “Clinging to Life,” Silver Key
Stella DeBettencourt, Grade 9, “Hidden,” Silver Key
Isla Fairstein, Grade 10, “Escape Artist” and “Seeping Through,” Silver Keys
Caiden Gardner, Grade 12, “Final Dance,” Gold Key
Matthew Macmillan, Grade 10, “The Blue Bus,” Silver Key
Tessa Schulz, Grade 10, “The View” and “Vacation Over,” Gold Keys
Ceramics and Glass
Leelyn Thompson, Grade 11, “Three Tier,” Gold Key
Digital Art
Lulu White, Grade 12, “Seeing Stars,” Silver Key
