Uniontown Area student wins national medal in Scholastic Art competition
Carson Gilleland’s won a gold medal in the mixed media category in the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for his piece titled, “The Center,” signifying his artwork as one of the most outstanding works in the nation in its category.
Carson Gilleland’s won a gold medal in the mixed media category in the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for his piece titled, “The Center,” signifying his artwork as one of the most outstanding works in the nation in its category.
Eric Morris | Herald-Standard
AJ McMullen eighth-grade student Carson Gilleland (left) was a 2018 national gold medalist in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. He is shown with AJ McMullen art teacher Lara Dowling, who sponsors the Scholastic Art Club at the school. Gilleland’s winning submission is pictured above.
AJ McMullen eighth-grader Carson Gilleland's national award-winning artwork “The Center” is pictured in the upper-right corner of a page from a program showing regional winners of the Scholastic Awards.
Sometimes art comes easy to eighth-grader Carson Gilleland.
The AJ McMullen Middle School student’s recent national gold medal-winning entry in the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition took only about two hours to construct using wood he found in his dad’s workshop and from a small tree Gilleland cut down.
“After I had the idea, it was really simple,” Gilleland said.
The Scholastic Awards competition, presented by the Alliance for Young Artist & Writers, is held annually for students in grades 7-12 to submit entries in 29 categories of art and writing.
Gilleland’s piece, titled “The Center,” won gold in the mixed media category, signifying his artwork as one of the most outstanding works in the nation in its category.
“The Center,” enclosed by a 16-by-12-inch wooden frame, is a block of wood with numerous sticks protruding from the center like spokes, meant to emulate the sun setting through a group of trees, as observed by Gilleland from his home.
Lara Dowling, art teacher at AJ McMullen in the Uniontown Area School District, has sponsored the Scholastic Art Club for seventh- and eighth-grade students at the school for the past 10 years.
“Them getting recognized for their art is a big deal,” said Dowling. “Sometimes being in a small community, art isn’t considered a significant subject, but it’s a subject that sometimes (students) most excel at.”
Dowling explained that she provides the materials and guidance for the 27 students who participate in the extracurricular club, but leaves it up them to choose a project and work on it in their own time between the beginning of the school year and the December submission date for the regional competition held at California University of Pennsylvania.
AJ McMullen students submitted 45 projects to this year’s competition. Gilleland’s projects won two Gold Key awards for the very best works submitted at the regional level, which were automatically considered for national-level recognition.
In 2018, students across the nation submitted nearly 350,000 works, of which nearly 20,000 received Gold Keys at their respective regional levels.
About 3,300 submissions — or less than 1 percent — were awarded medals at the national level. Winning entries are selected by creative professionals as the most accomplished in the nation.
Students receiving top awards are invited to attend the organization’s national ceremony at Carnegie Hall and a series of student showcase events in New York City in June.
Dowling said Gilleland is the first AJ McMullen student and second Uniontown Area student to receive a national medal in the competition in the district’s history of participation.
“For them to be recognized, I’m always proud and honored to be their teacher and to guide them into these paths in their lives,” Dowling said.
Gilleland’s piece, once it arrives in New York, will be photographed and catalogued in the National Medal database.
His artwork will be featured in the 10-day National Exhibition at the Parsons School of Design at The New School and Pratt Institute’s Pratt Manhattan Gallery, and will subsequently travel the country on an exhibition tour through 2019 beginning at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in October.
Two other area students won medals in the national competition.
Ringgold High School senior Haley Ference won a gold medal-American visions medal in the drawing and illustration category for her piece “Daydreaming.”
Senior Addie Best of Confluence was awarded two silver medals, one in the film and animation category and another in the art portfolio category.