Rivers Students Receive 39 Honors from 2014 Scholastic Art Awards

The 2014 Scholastic Art Awards recognized Rivers students with a whopping 39 awards this year. Approximately half of all of Rivers’ entries gained recognition: The school received eight Gold Keys, 15 Silver Keys, and 16 Honorable Mentions.

“It’s wonderful that so many student artists at Rivers were recognized in this year’s awards,” said Visual Arts Department Chair David Saul. He added that students from both the Middle and Upper Schools earned honors for artwork in all of the different mediums taught at Rivers, including ceramics, sculpture, drawing, photography, printmaking, painting, and digital art.

Rivers’ winners came from a very well-rounded pool, as all grades from 7 through 12 were represented (Scholastic Art does not include Grade 6). All of Rivers’ arts faculty members had at least one student recognized, and there were winners in all of the possible 2D and 3D media arts categories.

Rivers’ 2014 Gold Key Award winners include Miranda Bachman ’14 (ceramics), Claudia Bellido ’14 (ceramics), Maria Burzillo ’16 (ceramics), Will Cohen ’15 (printmaking), Erin Connolly ’15 (printmaking), Savannah Knisley ’11 (ceramics), Kate Longfield ’14 (printmaking), and Rachel Silverman ’14 (ceramics).

The Silver Key Award winners include Alicia Bellido ’17 (drawing), Simone Blake ’14 (ceramics), Leah Ciffolillo ’14 (photography), Matt Cronin ’19 (drawing), Kristen Daley ’15 (painting), Hunter Dempsey ’15 (sculpture), Courtney Drucker ’16 (ceramics), David Freedman ’17 (photography), Sophie Jacobs ’18 (drawing), Sareena Kamath ’14 (printmaking), Patrick McNally ’15 (digital art), Ben Pasculano ’15 (ceramics), Caroline Rakip ’15 (photography), Maya Wasserman ’18 (photography), and Christine Yang ’16 (sculpture).

Rivers’ honorable mentions include Leah Ciffolillo ’14 (photography), Alex Clay ’18 (photography), Hunter Corliss ’17 (photography), Alexandra Gaither ’15 (sculpture), Sarah Jarvis ’14 (drawing), Savannah Knisley ’15 (printmaking), Aidan McAnena ’18 (photography), Victoria Nedder ’16 (sculpture), Natalie Schoen ’16 (ceramics), Alex Sidell ’16 (sculpture), Campbell Siegrist ’17 (photography), Natalia Sprofera ’15 (drawing), Sam Stulin ’14 (ceramics), Charles Watkins ’16 (digital art), Montrez Williams ’14 (ceramics), and Claudia Wittenberg ’15 (photography).

This year, The Boston Globe sponsored the event, as it has in years past, but in a departure from previous years, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) hosted and facilitated the process.

An award ceremony honoring the winners will be held on Saturday, March 8 at Northeastern University. An exhibit featuring all of the Gold Key winners will run at Boston City Hall from March 7 through 28. It will be open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

“Thanks to our dedicated artist educators, we have students at all levels of our program willing to take risks,” Saul said. “They are learning from the creative process and making significant, self-expressive artwork.”