Fine Arts Center Wins National Recognition

The Fine Arts Center for  the New River Valley received the Gold Key for Excellence in the Field Award from Scholastic sponsored by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.

On Thursday during its National Leadership Conference, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers awarded the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley it’s Gold Key Award for Excellence in the Field. Christopher Wisniewski, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, presented the award to the Center in acknowledgment for their work over the past year as an affiliate in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The awards are the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for creative students in grades 7–12. The Fine Arts Center coordinates the Scholastic Art Awards for students in Southwest Virginia that encompasses a region comprising schools and arts education programs in 23 counties in the Commonwealth.

Scholastic reported that this year nearly 220,000 works of art and writing were submitted to more than 100 Affiliate Partners across the country. This year, students in Southwest Virginia submitted approximately 300 works, and of those, 82 received awards that qualified them for national competition. Six students from Southwest Virginia received recognition at the national level for their art. 

The Fine Arts Center of the New River Valley has been the official affiliate of the Scholastic Art Awards for Southwest Virginia for nearly twenty years. They are supported, in part, by funding from the Town of Pulaski, Pulaski County, the C. E. Richardson Benevolent Foundation, the Randolph Foundation, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts as well as through membership and donations.

More information about the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards can be found by visiting the Scholastic News Room at www.artandwriting.org.