By Alok Ganguly
Public Relations

This year, 35 WA students were able to send some of their artwork to the Scholastic Globe Show and earned several awards, from Gold and Silver Keys to Honorable Mentions. Students submitted a large variety of pieces, ranging from photographs to watercolor paintings, and everything in between. Students at both the middle school and high school levels are able to submit pieces for the competition.

“It’s a combination of students saying ‘Hey, I’m really proud of this piece, I’d like to submit it to the Globe Show’, and [teachers] saying ‘Hey, I like that photograph that you made, let’s submit it to the Globe Show,’ so it’s kind of a dialogue between the students and the teachers on what get submitted,” said Lisa Bolotte, an art teacher at WA.

Students submit an electronic file to the competition website, and are notified at a later date if they won an award. The students who win a gold key for their award are then featured in the state competition.

“If they have a gold key at state level, then it is put in a pool to be juried to go on to the national level. I’m not sure how they choose the national level, it’s very rare, it’s not a common thing, it’s maybe a few pieces over the whole show,” said Bolotte.

The gold key pieces are then showcased at Boston City Hall on March 13th, which is when the competition takes place. Westford Academy students will be taking a field trip into Boston, which Bolotte says is not only a good experience to see their own art showcased, but also pieces from other talented students in the state.

According to Bolotte, this is an accomplishment for all of the students who received any sort of recognition from the competition. Out of all of the students that submitted entries into the competition, half of them received recognition for their work, and ten percent of them received a gold key for their art.

While this success is very important for the students whose art was recognized, Bolotte hopes that those who were not recognized will not be deterred from pursuing an artistic career.

“Being an artist, you could submit work to ten different shows, and get the highest mention in one show and not even be considered in another show, so there is some subjectivity, so just because your work isn’t selected, doesn’t mean you’re not good or your work isn’t good, you have to take it with a grain of salt, you have to get used to not being selected all the time, but be proud when you do get selected,” said Bolotte.