The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards’ national office is dedicated to growing and supporting our local programs. Our Affiliates 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 Northeastern Pennsylvania Scholastic Art & Writing Regions, which are overseen by our new Affiliate, Marywood University in Scranton, PA. Here’s what the staff at Marywood had to say about Awards activity in their region:
Meet Marywood University, the new regional affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania Scholastic Art & Writing Awards! Located in Lackawanna County, in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania, Marywood University is no stranger to the Scholastic Awards. The Marywood Art Galleries have hosted the jury, exhibition, and awards ceremony for Pennsylvania’s Northeast Region of the Scholastic Art Awards for over 30 years, partnering with the former regional affiliate, Times–Shamrock Communications.
The Northeast PA Region serves 17 of the 67 counties of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Bradford, Carbon, Clinton, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Lycoming, Monroe, Montour, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Snyder, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Union, Wayne, and Wyoming.
Beginning with the 2015–2016 program year, Marywood University assumes sponsorship and becomes the exhibition host for the Scholastic Art Awards for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Region! In addition, Marywood University is happy to announce that we will expand our sponsorship and host the Scholastic Writing Awards for Northeastern Pennsylvania as well. Marywood will be joining the ranks of only 20 Affiliates in the entire country to offer both art and writing. Gallery director Sandra Ward Povse announced Marywood’s involvement as regional affiliate at the regional awards ceremony on February 7, 2015, and was greeted with a hearty applause by the educators in attendance.
At Marywood University, the art and writing programs are anchored in the Art, Art Galleries, and English Departments. Housed in two different colleges, the departments will work collaboratively together to facilitate their respective programs, including jurying and the awards ceremony. The Marywood Art Galleries will continue to host the exhibition of artwork in the Mahady Gallery, as well as host annual educator meetings and the art jury, and help the educator committee identify new jurors.
In the past, jurying was done in the gallery with actual artwork. We had limits on the number of submissions simply because there was not enough room to house all of the works during the judging process. During those years, we displayed 200–275 works in the exhibition, which included all of the Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention pieces, as well as entire art portfolios. Now that students are allowed to submit without limits, we’ve had to come up with new ways to display the additional works. Most recent exhibitions display both Gold Key and Silver Key works and gallery graduate assistants produce a PowerPoint slideshow to project Honorable Mention works. The slideshow runs continuously on two monitors in different locations in the exhibition space as well as during the awards ceremony. These efforts to find creative ways to display all of the works aligns with our Galleries’ mission to maintain a highly supportive policy regarding the students, their families, and art educators by fostering inclusiveness as much as feasible.
It’s a new beginning for Northeast PA Scholastic Art & Writing Regions! Marywood University, a major provider of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral education in Northeast PA, is dedicated to reaching out further to educators and students in our region, and expanding access to teen artists and writers throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are proud to work with organizations like Marywood University to help talented students receive recognition for their creative efforts. Marywood University is one of our newest Affiliates, and their staff is working hard to grow their program. By partnering together, Marywood University and the Scholastic Awards give our youth the support they need to become lasting members of the art and writing communities.