School Contest Seeks Out Young Artists

Because art education has been suffering cutbacks, especially in public schools, ArtWorks Studio Center of Fine Art this year created a contest to seek out young artists that might otherwise go unrecognized.

The results of the Fine Art Contest, which the studio hopes to make an annual event, were announced this week. Given the quality of the submissions by more than 70 local students from public and private schools, studio officials said it was not always easy to pick winners.

“I was amazed by the quality of work that came in,” said studio owner Elaine Carey. “Especially among the 8- to 10-year-olds. But then I knew, based on the talent among kids we get in classes, there had to be more out there doing this kind of work.”

Studio officials acknowledge that the contest was in part an effort to let people know about their private Chatsworth school, which was founded in July. But they also wanted to provide an outlet for students who have an innate talent and not enough opportunity to display their work.

Carey and studio art director Greg Mansi both praised the efforts of the few art teachers who have survived the cuts by schools, and to those volunteer art teachers who also work in the classrooms.

The contest had only one rule: the students’ original work had to be mounted or framed.

“It was open to all mediums,” Mansi said. “We wanted to put as few restrictions on this as possible to get them here to show their work.”

The first-place winner among submission by younger artists was a landscape in the style of Monet by Jacqueline Quezada, 9, from Pinecrest School in Northridge. Mansi said that as soon as he saw the painting, he pegged it for a prize.

“Nobody who works here did any of the judging,” he said. “But when I saw this, I knew it was a winner.”