Creative Teens: Win Up to $10,000 in Scholarships for Scholastic Art and Writing

Teen artists and writers take note: This is your big chance to get recognition (and, potentially, a lot of cash!) for your creativity. The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers is now accepting entries for their 2011 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Entrants must be students in grades 7 through 12, and work can be submitted in over 25 categories. Arts categories range from painting to photography to video game design, and writing categories include journalism, poetry, personal essays and much more. Graduating seniors have the chance to submit an art or writing portfolio in lieu of a single work.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have been around since 1923. In almost eight decades they've recognized students who've grown up to become some of America's most prominent artists and writers, including Joyce Carol Oates, Andy Warhol and Robert Redford. They chose this week to announce their 2011 call for submissions in honor of the first annual National Arts in Education Week. In July, Congress designated the second week in September as Arts in Education Week in order to recognize that the arts are 'an essential element of a complete and balanced education for all students.'

Visit the Arts Education Partnership site to learn more about arts in education week, but we figured - what better way to recognize the achievements of arts education than the Arts & Writing awards?

A variety of awards are offered through the program. Over 50,000 students will receive recognition on a regional level, and 1,300 students will earn national awards. In addition to being honored at public events and regional and national ceremonies, many winners will have the opportunity to have their artwork exhibited or their writing published. There will be 60 regional arts exhibitions in museums and galleries across the country in addition to a national show in New York City. Writers will have the chance to have their work printed in publications like the National Catalog and Spark, and several other scholastic publications that have printed award-winning work in the past.

And there's more: Some lucky winners will earn prizes ranging from $500 to $10,000. The biggest awards come in the form of undergraduate tuition scholarships for graduating seniors who earn Portfolio Gold Medals in the art, photography, general writing and nonfiction categories. And more than 90 teens who are in grades 7-11 will win full-ride scholarships to summer art and writing camps.

Awards ranging from $250 to $1,000 are also offered for sponsoring teachers.

Submissions are accepted locally, and deadlines vary for each region. Regional awards will given out in early 2011, and submissions designated as 'Gold Keys' will be forwarded to the national review board in February, 2011. Interested students should visit the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards website for more details about regional deadlines and the submission process.