Two Archmere Students Recognized with National Scholastic Art Medals

Grace and Liz’s entries were scratchboard drawings created in Archmere's Introduction to Drawing class, an entry-level foundation course team-taught by Ms. Van Wylen & Mrs. Silverman '00, designed to develop creative confidence and technical drawing ability and concepts. Scratchboard drawings are created by etching or removing a dry India ink surface on a white substrate using an exact-o blade or other instrument. 

 

Grace Yang '25: National Gold Medal for Hemlock in Awe, Drawing & Illustration category - Scratchboard Drawing.

 

Teacher: Rachel Van Wylen

Liz Xu '24: National Gold Medal for Korean Barbecue, Drawing & Illustration category - Scratchboard Drawing. 

 

Teacher: Stephanie Silverman '00

 

Grace and Liz were both recognized with Gold Keys at the regional (state) level in January, and then their artwork advanced to the national level. National medalists will be celebrated at a National Scholastics Awards ceremony in New York City at Carnegie Hall on June 9, 2022, and are eligible for additional publication, scholarship, and exhibition opportunities through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program. 

More than 100,000 teens from across the country and Canada entered more than 260,000 works of art and writing to the 2022 Scholastic Awards. These two pieces were selected by some of the foremost leaders in the visual and literary arts for excellence in originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Only 2,000 works received a National Medal, which means these two works of student art have been recognized as representative of the top 1% of all national submissions.

Since 1923, the Awards have celebrated teen artists and writers from across the country, including ranks of notable alumni, including Tschabalala Self, Stephen King, Kay WalkingStick, Charles White, Joyce Carol Oates, and Andy Warhol - all of whom won Scholastic Awards when they were teens. Archmere is celebrating its 51st anniversary of the Fine Arts program this year.