For the third year in a row, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have partnered with Golden Artist Colors to offer our educators the opportunity of a lifetime: The Golden Educators’ Residency, a two-week artists’ residency in upstate New York at the Sam & Adele Golden Foundation’s artist residence space! Three educators were chosen for this residency, and it is our honor to announce this year’s residents:

Lucy Harackiewicz

Jamaica Plain, MA

“My work is a dialog between a group of aesthetic ideas and assumptions and many questions–will this visual element work with my interior thought about what should happen? Being unable to predict exactly what will be the result of “what happens when I do this?”, the dialog may be both awkward and yet idiosyncratically right. The tension and surprise in the dialog is what furthers the work and keeps it moving forward.”

“I believe in the value of a creative life. Painting is the medium of my identity and has been a lifelong pursuit. My essential belief that a creative life is compelling and beautiful is what I hope to impart to my students and teach them to experience–so my painting and my teaching are intrinsically wound up in each other.”

Margaret Minardi

Ft. Salonga, NY

“As a 30 year high school art educator, I have found profound gratification in passing on what I continue to learn to my students. They help to keep me stimulated and about new art forms and on top of the latest technology and mediums. My students are magic. I deeply respect their dedication, huge hearts, trust, talent, and lust to learn. . . .Most of the past 30 years have been spent heavily promoting my student’s artwork. Over that time a thousand works of my own art have accumulated in the closet. I obsessively make artwork wherever I go including before, during, and after school. I create while on vacation or on hall duty. I have no choice. I am lucky to have this need to make art. It keeps me excited about living and curious about what will come next in my paintings!”

Elizabeth Stainton

New York, NY

“My painting practice keeps me wondering and learning. I delight in visual expression and I can’t imagine life without it. My professional life has been an eclectic art-related ride, culminating in a profoundly satisfying role teaching children, young adults, and adults. Through it all, making art has challenged, grounded and directed me. Currently, I have a strong desire to focus less privately on my work and more bravely and purposefully on developing my craft and career as an artist.”

Congratulations to Lucy, Margaret, and Elizabeth! We can’t wait to see what they create.

We would also like to acknowledge the finalists whose impressive works made reaching the final decision a difficult process:

Carrie Alter, Chapel Hill, NC

Jennifer Baldwin, Ft. Mitchell, KY

Rebecca Buchanan, Hillsboro, OR

Chris Hagerty, Portland, OR

Orlando Leyba, Corales, NM

Nathaniel Meyer, South Portland, ME

Anita Ricks-Bates, Highland Park, MI

Michal Sagar, Minneapolis, MN

Brendan Sarsfield, Tokyo, Japan

The nine finalists and three residents will all receive $1,000 gift certificates, courtesy of Golden Artist Colors.