The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards’ national office in New York City is dedicated to growing and supporting our Affiliate Partners across the country. Our Affiliate Partners are doing great work in their communities, and we love hearing about their outreach efforts, their students, and their programs. This month, we shine the spotlight on the Northeast Florida Art Education Association, which manages the Northeast Florida Scholastic Art Awards. Here’s what the Northeast Florida Art Education Association had to say about Awards activity in their region:
The Northeast Florida Scholastic Art Awards (NEFSAA) is in its sixth year as an Affiliate Partner and operates under its parent organization: Northeast Florida Art Education Association. Formerly known as Duval Art Teachers Association, we recently changed our name and scope of who we serve to include not only public art programs in Duval County (Jacksonville, Florida), but private, charter, parochial, and home school art teachers and students. NEFSAA serves six counties in northeast Florida including Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, St. John’s, and Volusia Counties.
Since many of our student award recipients and their families have to travel to Jacksonville for our Awards Ceremony and Award Exhibitions, we restructured our NEFSAA Celebration in 2016 by creating a full-day experience in downtown Jacksonville. The 2016 NEFSAA Ceremony was held at the Times-Union Center for Performing Arts, welcoming an audience well beyond the capacity of the theater. We then held Award Exhibition openings at the nearby Jacksonville Main Branch Library and the Heather Moore Community Gallery.
This year’s awards ceremony will have expanded space for our student award recipients, their families, and our community audience at the historic Florida Theatre in downtown Jacksonville. The Award Exhibitions will open following the Awards Ceremony at the Jacksonville Main Branch Library (individual Gold Key work) and the Heather Moore Community Gallery (Gold and Silver Key portfolio work), both located just a short walk from the Florida Theatre.
NEFSAA works tirelessly to form and maintain strong relationships with local colleges and universities. As a result we were able to offer our student award recipients the opportunity for more than $4.3 million in college scholarship support in 2016!
This year we created a brief video about NEFSAA including information about the organization, entering NEFSAA, and pictures of 2016 work in order to distribute information easily in an accessible format. We also created a Quick Reference Guide PDF for participants new to our region. We are busy preparing for the 2017 Scholastic Awards as the deadline quickly approaches and cannot wait to see and celebrate the work of the talented student artists and educators in the northeast Florida region!
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are proud to work with organizations like the Northeast Florida Art Education Association to help talented students receive recognition for their creative efforts. By partnering together, the Northeast Florida Art Education Association and the Scholastic Awards give our youth the support they need to become lasting members of their art and writing communities.