10th Visual Arts Contest Awards Ceremony, December 2, 2009
Six Houston-area high school students have been selected as grand-prize winners in the 10th annual Culture Shapers Visual Arts competition, winning $5,000 each. With 1,456 entries, the competition awarded $70,500 to 60 students at an elegant ceremony held at the Philip Geiger Center at Westfield High School on Wednesday, December 2, 2009. In addition to the grand-prize winners, dozens of other finalists received cash prizes ranging from $250 to $2,500.
The competition’s six categories include Drawing, Electronic Media, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography and Sculpture. Two students entered and placed in multiple categories.
Anda Brown was the BIG WINNER being a DOUBLE FIRST PLACE WINNER (Mixed Media & Sculpture) and taking home $10,000 to go along with her previous year’s winnings of $5,500 for a nice haul of $15,500!
John Kim was the other double winner taking home the Grand Prize $5,000 in Drawing and fifth place $500 in Painting. Paul Garza was the recipient of the “The Danny Wood Heart in Art Award” and $1,250.
In addition to honoring teen artists, the event also recognized a teacher and friends of the arts for going “above and beyond” in their efforts to create compelling programs for young people to pursue the arts.
Congratulations to Kim Glasgow (art teacher at Seven Lakes High School) for being selected as the “Teacher Of The Year”. Additional honors of “Friend Of The Arts” went to Jean Wu (librarian at Kerr high school), and Dawn Cole (11th grade principal at Memorial High School).
The amazing life story of Saul Garza was celebrated as the Danny Wood “Heart In Art” Award winner for 2009.
And Chidima Ubah, a Young Voices of Houston semi-final winner, brought the house to their feet with a standing ovation for her vocal skills of a Whitney Houston song.
Congratulations to all 90 students who made it into the top 6%. Thank you for sharing a part of your life with us.
“Visual and performing arts are universal forms of expression that can connect students from all walks of life,” said Ernie Fitzpatrick, Culture Shapers founder and president. “It is not uncommon for schools to honor students who excel in athletics or science. We promote the belief that it is equally important to encourage students to pursue careers in the arts, thus encouraging them to become the – culture shapers - of the future.”
“Participation in the arts promotes critical-thinking skills and problem-solving abilities, key factors that can play into a student’s future success, “ said A. Steve Arizpe, executive vice president, client services and chief operating officer of Administaff, one of the competition’s sponsors. “The creativity demonstrated by these young artists is inspiring, and we at Administaff are committed to providing opportunities for them to pursue their artistic and educational goals.”
Financial support for Culture Shapers is provided by Administaff and The Nathaniel Foundation. Many other area businesses contribute to the program throughout the year with tax-deductible donations and sponsorships. The Culture Shapers visual arts contest, which is judged by arts educators and professionals, has awarded more than $1,000,000 to young artists in the past ten years.
We started off with 7 categories, the seventh being Film which we had to dropped due to lack of financial funds.
“We chose the Film category because it represented the smallest number of entries, but more importantly, because we felt the Film category carried with it the potential to do something even greater for our talented young filmmakers,” said Ernie Fitzpatrick. “We are actively seeking financial sponsorship to launch a standalone film festival that will take place during the Spring to honor high school filmmakers and give to those winners the same amount of money that is being awarded to our other winners here tonight.”
What is Culture Shapers?
Culture Shapers is an art program open to all high school students in Harris, Waller, Liberty, Chambers, Galveston, Brazoria, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. The program was created by Houston-area community leaders who were motivated to positively impact the lives of high school students after the 1999 tragedy at Columbine High School. To learn more about Culture Shapers, visit www.cultureshapers.com.
Contact: Lyn Fitzpatrick at 281.664.1420 for more details!
