YOUTH SHOWS OFF ARTISTIC TALENT
Sacred Heart student wins online art competition
Sacred Heart Academy student Olivia Middleton is the winner of Artsonia’s Artist of the Week contest, a voting competition held on Artsonia.com, the world’s largest collection of student art portfolios exhibiting over 100 million pieces of student art.
Middleton received more than a thousand online votes for her winning art.
“I love that my art class allows me to be creative and take different approaches when working on an assignment,” Middleton.
“I’m not always confident in my abilities, but in art class, I know that every time I make something, I’m improving my skills and becoming a better artist.”
When asked how she felt when she found out she won Artist of the Week, Middleton said, “I was really excited. It felt like all my hard work is finally paying off.”
Middleton’s teacher, Sarah Chaffee, has been teaching art for more than 16 years. She encourages her students to create meaningful art through a choice-based curriculum.
“My students are making the decisions about how and what they create and encouraged to work like real artists,” Chaffee said.
Chaffee believes it is important for students to receive recognition for their artistic accomplishments.
“It is such a confidence boost for students to be recognized. So much emphasis is put on sports, but not all students are athletes. Everyone has talents, but not everyone excels in the same ways,” Chaffee said.
Chaffee is one of the thousands of art teachers who use Artsonia to showcase their student art, manage the art room, crowdsource lesson plans, and fundraise for their classrooms.
Artsonia lets family and friends of student artists create and purchase custom keepsakes from the student art and then gives back 20
percent of all revenue to the local art classroom.
Artsonia developed Artist of the Week 15 years ago as a way to encourage teachers to submit student artwork and engage the school and community to vote on and recognize students for their creative achievements.
Every week, Artsonia selects 12 random submissions in each of four different age groups (Prek-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12) from artwork submitted the previous week. Voting is open to the public for several days before the winner is announced.
Blick Art Materials generously donates a $100 gift certificate to the winning school and an individual $50 gift certificate to the student artist.
“Our mission at Artsonia is to bring communities together to celebrate children’s artistic expressions,” said Jim Meyers, CEO, and co-founder of the company.
“Artist of the week is a perfect way to get local schools, families, and friends involved in the process of creating, recognizing, and cherishing student art.”