Maggie Walker Dominates 2023 Regional Scholastic Art Awards

Here's a sampling of a few of our Gold and Silver Key winners!

The MLWGS Visual Arts Department is very excited to announce that our talented students were recently honored by having their work selected in the regional 2023 Scholastic Art competition.   This is a highly competitive annual art competition which had 1878 art entries from around the region. 
MLWGS students had one of their best years ever with  69 total awards and the most portfolio winners from ANY school, recognizing Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School as one of the region’s top schools for the Arts.  

69 total awards
28 Gold Keys awards  including 3 Gold Key Portfolios and 1 American Visions Nominee
14 Silver Keys awards including 2 Silver Key Portfolios
27 Honorable Mentions including 4 Honorable Mention Portfolios

Two Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School students received special recognition for their work in this show.  
Senior, Kori Benjamin, received an American Visions Award nomination for her drawing, Girls with Guns.  Additionally, senior, Gray Pershing’s sculpture, Stargirl, was chosen for the VisArts Artistic Merit Award.  

A portfolio award is very difficult to achieve as it requires a comprehensive body of work expressing a unique artistic voice. Maggie Walker Governor’s School received the most portfolio awards of any school in the region.  Please join me in congratulating the following SENIORS who received received special recognition for their portfolios.  
V Bryson - Gold Key Art Portfolio with additional awards of 1 Gold Key in Mixed Media and 1 Honorable Mention in Extended Projects
Reade Henley - Gold Key Art Portfolio with additional awards of 1 Silver Key and 1 Honorable Mention for Fashion
Julia Turner - Gold Key Photography Portfolio with additional awards of 1 Gold Key and 1 Silver Key for Photography 
Ala Killen - Silver Key Photography Portfolio, Honorable Mention Art Portfolio, with additional awards of 2 Silver Keys for Painting, 1 Silver Key for Photography, and 3 Honorable Mentions for Photography
Ananya Sairaman - Silver Key Art Portfolio with additional awards of 4 Gold Keys for Drawing, Printmaking, and Painting
Kori Benjamin - Honorable Mention Art Portfolio, with additional award of 1 Gold Key and American Visions Award Nominee  in Drawing and 1 Gold Key in Painting
Cameron Golden - Honorable Mention Art Portfolio with additional award of 1 Silver Key in Painting
Libbie Sydnor - Honorable Mention Photography Portfolio with additional award of 1 Honorable Mention in Sculpture


Gold and Silver Key winners will have their work displayed at the Visual Art Center of Richmond from Feb. 3- Feb. 20th.  Gold Key works will be juried in New York for consideration for National Awards.     
Congratulations to the following students who were recognized with individual Gold Keys and/or Silver Keys:
Lucie Bouton - Gold Key in Photography and Silver Key in Sculpture
Tyler DeHaven - Gold Key in Digital Art
Hannah Fetter - Gold Key in Photography and Honorable Mention in Ceramics
Charlie Goodman - Gold Key in Photography
Emil Josefiak - Gold Key in Printmaking and Gold Key in Mixed Media
Izzy List - Gold Key in Painting
Mercedes Luna - Gold Key in Drawing and another Gold Key in Printmaking
Shorya Malani - Gold Key in Photography
Cecilia Oseguera - Gold Key and Honorable Mention in Painting
Gray Pershing - Two Gold Keys and an Honorable Mention in Sculpture
Allyson Phillips- Two Gold Keys and an Honorable Mention in Photography
Brielle Telfair - Gold Key in Mixed Media
Carson Wang - Gold Key and an Honorable Mention in Film and Animation
Ananthu Anish - Silver Key in Drawing
Ella Cable - Silver Key in Photography
Matilda Frantz - Silver Key in Drawing
Xavier Julien - Silver Key in Digital Art
Sadie McMahon - Silver Key in Design


The Scholastic Arts competition is extremely competitive.  All recognitions celebrate the quality of these student works.   Please join me in congratulating these students who were recognized with Honorable Mention awards for their work:
Colleen Blakeney - HM in Photography
Elizabeth Eckstein- HM in Photography
Sadie Hall - HM in Fashion
Muriel Lewis - HM in Design
Ryan Marks - HM in Photography
Owen McDonald - HM in Photography
Kaysen Mills - HM in Printmaking
Mattias Parandeh - HM in Photography
Lambrini Phillos - HM in Painting
Sibi Sundar - HM in Photography
Olympia Theofanos - HM in Photography

Congratulations to all these talented students!  Go Dragons!