La Lumiere School sophomore, Qingyuan “Season” Wu, from Beijing, China, entered five works of art into the Scholastic Art Awards program, and she received five awards — three Silver Key and two Honorable Mention. Of her five works, three will be on display at the South Bend Museum of Art, including: Juice, a painting, Silver Key; Wait, a pen and ink drawing, Silver Key; and Round, a painting, Honorable Mention. The 2016 Scholastic Art Awards exhibition will showcase students’ art at the museum from Saturday, Jan. 30 through Saturday, Feb. 27, with an opening reception on Friday, Feb. 5 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Warner and Community Galleries.
“I’m very happy because when I submitted my artwork, I didn’t imagine that I would receive an award,” Season says. “This is good because my dream is to go to an art school in the United States for college, maybe the Rhode Island School of Design.” Season says that she has been interested in art since she was in kindergarten, and she enjoys painting with acrylics and drawing.
La Lumiere School art teacher, Lara Matthys, says, “I am thoroughly impressed with Season’s initiative and skill. Her work is beautiful, and her determination to create on her own time is to be commended.”
According to the museum’s website, the purpose of the program is to, “encourage, foster, and reward creativity in our nation’s classrooms and to confer recognition on emerging talent.” The Scholastic Art Awards program has representation in different regions, and the Northwest Indiana and Southwest Lower Michigan Region includes student work from the following counties: Benton, Cass, Elkhart, Fulton, Jasper, Kosciusko, Lake, LaPorte, Marshall, Newton, Porter, Pulaski, St. Joseph, Stark, and White in Indiana; and Berrien, Cass, and St. Joseph in Michigan.