Parsons Hosts Art. Write. Now. National Exhibition
Silent Forest by Amir Noorbakhsh.
David Sedaris loves this. Is there a more meaningful endorsement? The acclaimed author, monologist, and public radio regular was among an august panel of judges (also including The New Yorker‘s Roz Chast and author Edwidge Danticat) who helped pick the 1,600 young recipients of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, of which a select 500 will be on display at the Shelia C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons the New School for Design opening June 1.
The awards, exclusively for young writers and artists in grades 7 ‘ 12, is the country’s longest-running competition of its kind. Dating back to 1923, past winners have included Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, and Richard Avedon. This year, over 2000,000 young hopefuls submitted their work. Winners included 13-year-old Dayln Gillentine’s painting The Baguette Murderers, 12-year-old Amir Noorbakhsh’s Silent Forest (above), and 17-year-old Ben Caldwell’s work of verse, A Love Poem. A complete list of winners, including the 16 recipients of Portfolio Gold Awards (which includes a $10,000 cash scholarship), is available here.
The exhibition is a strong complement to Parsons’s own pre-college art and design programming, which includes summer and year-round programs both in New York and Paris.
The exhibit, titled Art. Write. Now. runs until June 15. To learn more, visit the SJDC website.