Bri Sandoval. Art Day. Grade 12, Age 18. 2013 Gold Key, Painting.

Tom Berger is the Assistant Director of Continuing Education at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and runs the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards’ Cleveland Art and Writing Regions (aka the Cuyahoga County Region). He recently helped us organize our first summer Boys.Write.Now workshop, part of a 5-city series of FREE writing workshops for boys in grades 7-12 where they were able to tell and share their stories, experiment, and express their creativity in a fun and supportive environment.

We asked him to share some of his favorite tips for staying creative. Check them out below! We hope they spark some new ideas that can be turned into a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards submission. Learn how to enter today!

Create Original Work
Write, doodle, draw, sculpt, design, compose etc… I hardly ever meet successful artists or writers who don’t have a journal or sketchbook that they regularly work creatively in. Ideas take time to grow and finished products take skills that need to be developed. Read More

Lara Candland Asplund is a writer, musician, librettist, feminist and writing-teacher-mentor to many Scholastic Award-winning writers including Portfolio Gold Medalist Mackenzie Jacoby and 2013 Portfolio Gold Key winner Sid Peery. We asked her to share her inspiration, and she sat right down and wrote you all a letter!
.

Dear Artists and Writers,

The most successful artists know a really good secret: you’re a lot more productive when you’re having fun, when your alpha waves are flowing. Here are some tips for learning how to mine your summer creativity to keep you going all year! Read More

Photo credit: The Lab School of Washington, DC

Calling all Art Educators! Check out this all-expenses-paid workshop opportunity for art teachers (deadline to apply is THIS Friday, March 15):

Celebrating its 20th year, The Power of Art is a three-day workshop in Washington, D.C. that explores strategies for using art to engage and teach academic skills to students with different learning profiles of strengths and weaknesses. The Power of Art will include direct experience with a variety of learning strategies, tours and workshops at The Lab School, activity-oriented tours of the Smithsonian Institution, and discussions with leaders from the fields of art, art education, special education, and museums. Read More

Florence Ma. The Writer's Cage. Grade 12, Age 17. 2012 Gold Medal, Drawing.

What makes a great writer? Great writing evokes emotion, sparks an idea, and provides new perspective.

In Looking to Write, Writing to Look, art educators Barbara Bassett and Rebecca Mitchell of the Philadelphia Museum of Art believe that:

“Great writers are great observers. They consider the world around them, notice overlooked details, and make connections. Looking carefully at art helps us to develop these observation skills. Art encourages us to slow down, look closely, and reflect on what we see. When we accept this invitation, we are rewarded with new thoughts and perspectives. These ideas and insights provide rich material for writing.”  Read More

Photo Credit: John Sigmund

We had the absolute pleasure of meeting Janet Tan, a teacher at the Hong Kong International School (HKIS), in our office two weeks ago. Janet joined the High School Humanities team at HKIS in 2000, and our TAG (Teacher Advisory Group) Team this year. She conducts workshops for schools and at conferences, and consults in schools in Southeast Asia. For the past 25 years, Janet has co-directed the East Asia Writing Project with her colleague and friend Judith Pearce.

In the following interview, Janet talks about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and shares her experience and advice.

Read More

The Alliance and Science Buddies are long-time friends! We applaud their incredible work connecting students and teachers with innovative projects and wanted to hand over the spotlight for them to tell you about some exciting new opportunities!

Science Buddies:

Trying to inspire and excite students about science with little or no money? Curious about ways to turn a student’s love for video games or programming into a legitimate science project? Struggling to fit student “invention” into the steps of the Scientific Method? Wondering about meeting student curiosity about forensics and biotechnology with limited lab resources?
Read More