2015 Visual Arts Scholarship Winners Announced

Saturday, January 24, 2015, more than 300 student artworks from across the state were judged at Thea Foundation in North Little Rock, Arkansas, during the 2015 Visual Arts Scholarship Competition. Our panel of qualified judges, including working artists Carly Dahl, Dustyn Bork and Mia Hall (Carly and Dustyn are professors at Lyon College and Mia teaches at University of Arkansas at Little Rock), spent hours poring over each work, finally selecting 10 scholarship winners and five honorable mentions from the seniors category and 10 $100 cash prize winners from the juniors category.

2015 Visual Arts Scholarship Competition Winners:

1st Place: Hannah Woodward, North Little Rock High School, $4,000

2nd Place: Adam Sperry, North Little Rock High School, $3,500

3rd Place: Heather Jackson, Caddo Hills High School, $3,000

4th Place: Chauncey Jones, North Little Rock High School, $2,500

5th Place: Sarah Westmoreland, Cabot High School, $2,000

6th Place: Justice Henderson, Morrilton High School, $2,000

7th Place: Sarah Wilkinson, Lakeside High School, $2,000

8th Place: Mary Bowling, eStem High School, $2,000

9th Place: Abigail Windham, Morrilton High School, $2,000

10th Place: Kristen Trantham, Mountain View High School, $2,000

Honorable Mention: Serena Garcia, Centerpoint High School

Honorable Mention: Brooksie Morales, Hot Springs High School

Honorable Mention: Emily Ford, Cabot High School

Honorable Mention: Gabriel Persson, Sylvan Hills High School

Honorable Mention: Rebekah Smith, Little Rock Central High School

2015 Visual Arts Competition Junior Winners:

1st Place: Molly Oman, Mount St. Mary Academy

2nd Place: Lexus Hadden, Conway High School

3rd Place: Alley Lewis, Batesville High School

4th Place: Mason Harmon, North Little Rock High School

5th Place: Cate Willis, Mount St. Mary Academy

6th Place: Chylynn Rudd, Batesville High School

7th Place: Elizabeth Shores, Harding Academy

8th Place: Kelcee Brant, Sylvan Hills High School

9th Place: Megan Webb, Sylvan Hills High School

10th Place: Bailey McKinney, Pulaski Academy

This marks the 13th year of Thea Foundation’s scholarship competitions, which began as solely visual arts in 2002 and expanded to include performing arts, film, creative writing, fashion design and poetry slam. Scholarship competitors are judged only on their talent; no GPA, test scores or interest to major in the arts are required for eligibility. To date, Thea Foundation has awarded close to $2 million in scholarships to students across the state. Thea Foundation partners with every four-year college in the state, one technical college and several institutions outside of Arkansas, who match or exceed a student’s scholarship if the student chooses to attend one of those institutions, but students can apply their scholarships at any school.

The winners of each of the six competitions will be honored with an award ceremony May 3, 2015, at Thea Foundation.