Thanks to presenting sponsor, the First Tennessee Foundation, the Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present The Scholastic Art Awards of 2009, a new exhibition featuring artwork by regional students grades 7-12. The selected art will be exhibited at the Emporium Center at 100 S. Gay Street in downtown Knoxville from February 6-27, 2009. A public reception will take place on Friday, February 6, from 5:00-9:00 as part of First Friday activities downtown. 

For more than thirteen years, the Arts & Culture Alliance has served East Tennessee as one of 81 Regional Affiliates of The Scholastic Arts Awards and invested over $40,000 in the program. The Alliance receives more than 1,000 works each year for consideration in fourteen categories (Animation, Art Portfolio, Ceramics and Glass, Computer Art, Design, Drawing, Graphic Story, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Photography Portfolio, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Video and Film). The Arts & Culture Alliance processes work from public, private, parochial, and home schools within a thirteen-county region, including Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger, Jefferson, Knox, Loudon, Monroe, Morgan, Roane, Sevier, and Union counties. 

The submissions are evaluated locally by a panel of jurors. The 2008 adjudicators for the East Tennessee Region include: 

Mark Hall – Maryville College Art Department
Lauren Kussro – Roane State Community College Art Department
Julie Rabun – Carson-Newman College Art Department
Jered Sprecher – University of Tennessee School of Art
Jennifer Stoneking-Stewart – Belmont University Art Department
Bryan Wilkerson – Roane State Community College Art Department 

At the student awards ceremony on Sunday, February 8, the Alliance will present 75 Gold Keys to go on to the national competition in New York and 75 Silver Keys for distinction. “We're very proud of the talent of Greater Knoxville's art students and feel indebted to the wonderful corps of art teachers who foster and direct that talent,” says Liza Zenni, Executive Director. “Without our local art teachers, there would be no Scholastic Art Awards.” 

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers tracks the creative development of more than a quarter of a million teenagers each year. All works, on the regional and national level, are evaluated for technical proficiency, originality, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Works receiving a Gold Key at the regional level are forwarded to New York for national adjudication and evaluated by professional panelists chosen from the art, literary, and education fields. 

From a field of more than 100,000 national entries in 2008, 10,000 works of art were eligible for national adjudication, and 1,100 students received national honors. Tennessee students received a total of 31 awards. 

The Scholastic Art Awards of 2009 is on exhibit at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, downtown Knoxville. Exhibit hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM with additional hours on Saturday, February 7, 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM. For more information, please contact Suzanne Cada at 865-523-7543 or [email protected], or visit www.knoxalliance.com. 

The Arts & Culture Alliance serves and supports a diverse community of artists, arts organizations, and cultural institutions by assuring their creative, financial, and operational well-being. The Arts & Culture Alliance provides leadership and advocacy that establishes and maintains the success of the arts and the cultural environment of greater Knoxville, as well as providing for a strong climate for cultural and economic interaction between the arts and the community as a whole.