Sylvia Plath. Steven King. Amanda Gorman. Other than the fact that these three are all eminent writers, what common factor do they share? That would be a “key” from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
Since 1923, The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards has been giving recognition to young artists throughout the US, its territories and Canada. With 28 categories of art and writing, students in grades 7-12 can apply with their pieces. Scholastic distributes three types of awards: Gold Keys, Silver Keys, and Honorable Mentions. Among the thousands of applicants in Massachusetts, 11 of the Brookline High School’s students won one or more awards for the art categories, and four won for writing. These awards allow young artists to explore creativity to its depths, share its importance with others and gain acknowledgement for their work.
Sophomore Jonah Kleinbaum won two Gold Keys, a Silver Key and an Honorable Mention this year. All of his pieces were vases made in the high school’s ceramics program. While crafting his pottery, he focused on adding interest to the pieces through angularity.
“What I like to think about when I’m making them is balancing the curves and sharp edges on pieces,” Kleinbaum said. “Because I primarily use the wheel as my starting point, and I just like to make interesting stuff that you have to think, ‘how did this come to be?’”
Kleinbaum has taken four ceramic classes at the high school and before that, attended classes at the Brookline Arts Center.
“I just really like the way that when you work with clay, you’re using your hands, and it’s like you put all of the work in, and you do all the designing, and it’s 3-D. Then there’s also the material aspects, where you have to think about the way that the elements are reacting with each other in the kiln, and how things change and move throughout the process,” Kleinbaum said.
Sophomore Heather Kim won a Gold Key for digital art and two Honorable Mentions, one for architecture and the other for drawing. Kim’s experience with art goes beyond the courses she takes in Brookline.
“I attended an arts middle school back in Korea, so that definitely gave me all the skills I needed, but they didn’t let me be creative,” Kim said. “But coming to Brookline High School, I realized the classes are more free and you can get more creative.”
Kim found inspiration for her artwork in various ways. The idea for her digital art piece came to her in a dream, where she was surrounded by a flower field that reached past the horizon, while her drawing piece was inspired by Edward Hopper’s Morning Sun. As for her architecture piece, Kim was motivated by a socio-environmental issue, hoping that her art would serve as a starting point for a future proposal.
“I wanted to help people in the community, and I thought of a design that would contribute to a problem that I found, which was the absence of benches in parks,” Kim said.
Junior Xixi Cui took home a Gold Key, a Silver Key, and four Honorable Mentions this year. Her work, like Kim’s, varied in types of media. With painting, drawing and mixed media, Cui experimented with her art. Still, she pursued a common theme throughout her artwork.
“It’s mainly about exploring self-identity and culture in the broad sense, but also at the same time, I would want more people to recognize my more specific culture of being Chinese,” Cui said.
Cui was born in Beijing, but her parents are from Mongolia, and she would visit her family in Asia every summer before COVID-19 struck. This past summer, on her first visit in around five years, she found inspiration in the local museums that stored ancient styles. In her mixed media piece that won a Silver Key, she portrays a man fixing a Mongolian-style hat, using fur from the hood of her old coat to add texture. According to Cui, this detail invites the audience to interact with the art further.
Cui said she hopes to continue pursuing studio art in college and is currently working on oil paintings to submit for her college portfolio.
Cui, Kim and Kleinbaum all said that they plan on submitting their work to Scholastic again in the coming years. For Kim, winning these keys meant that her art was valued by the greater community.
“I think for people like me who seek academic approval, it definitely helps boost your confidence. I feel like it signals that you are on a path of art that can be approved by society in some means,” Kim said.
Kleinbaum is grateful for the platform to share work and greatly anticipates the state’s Gold Key art exhibition at the Tufts University Breed Memorial Hall. The gallery showcases art and writing pieces that won gold in Massachusetts, and it will run from March 15-22.
Cui is also happy that her art is recognized and her hard work is appreciated. Still, she has a message for other artists who might not have gotten the results and recognition they wanted.
“There really is no right or wrong in making art. Making art, to me, is just a way to express your own identity and how you want yourself to be portrayed to the public. The people who are judging the Scholastic awards definitely have their own opinion on the things they see,” Cui said. “But also at the same time, your artwork belongs to you, not anyone else. So as long as you like it, that’s what matters.”
