Newtown High School artists were celebrated for recent accomplishments by the Board of Education at its meeting on March 5.

Near the start of the evening, Superintendent of Schools Dr Lorrie Rodrigue announced, “This evening, we are proud to honor students who received awards and honorable mentions.”

Students were honored at the meeting for earning recognition in two recent art shows. NHS artists were featured in both the 2018-19 Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards held at the Silpe Gallery at Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, West Hartford, between January 13 and February 1, and the Teen Visions, Connecticut’s 2019 High School Art Exhibition, held January 27 to February 10 at the Art & Design Gallery at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.

Students were called up individually to be honored. For the 2018-19 Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards, Anna LaBanca earned a Gold Key Award for a painting, Moira McKinley earned a Gold Key Award for a painting, Hanna Ruhs earned a Gold Key Award for a watercolor, Madeline Mixon earned a Silver Key Award for a ceramics and glass piece, Katarina Rosen earned a Silver Key Award for a ceramics and glass piece, Katie Sailer earned Honorable Mention for a drawing and illustration, and Danielle Wassmer earned Honorable Mention for a painting. For the Teen Visions show, Audrey Benson earned Best in Show for a pen and ink piece, Alyssa Bailey earned First Place for a ceramics piece, and Katie Sailer earned First Place for a scratchboard piece.

Newtown Director of Visual and Performing Arts Michelle Hiscavich and NHS art teacher Carol Pelligra both attended the meeting to highlight the students’ work. Ms Hiscavich shared a slideshow of photographs of each art piece.

“Congratulations to all of our outstanding student winners,” said Dr Rodrigue.