BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) recently announced that 167 young artists and writers from across Vermont have been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for their exceptional artistic and literary talent.
The students’ award-winning artwork and writing will be exhibited at BMAC from Feb. 20 to March 6. An awards ceremony will take place at the museum on Saturday, March 7, at noon. The ceremony is free and open to the public. Doors open at 10 a.m. Internationally acclaimed cartoonist and illustrator Harry Bliss will deliver the keynote address.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is considered a prestigious national recognition program for aspiring visual artists and writers. Each year, students in grades 7-12 are invited to submit art and writing in dozens of categories, including ceramics, digital art, painting, photography, poetry, science fiction, personal essay/memoir, and more. Submissions are judged on a statewide level, with the top award winners then considered for national awards, including college scholarships, museum exhibitions, and publication opportunities.
BMAC has administered the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for Vermont since 2011. Statewide awards consist of Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention. This year’s 49 Gold Key winners from Vermont are listed below. A list of all Vermont award winners (Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention) appears on the BMAC website at brattleboromuseum.org. National awards will be announced in June.
Since its founding in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have nurtured the talents and helped launch the careers of many creative visionaries. Past winners include Truman Capote, Lena Dunham, Stephen King, Sylvia Plath, John Updike, and Andy Warhol, among many others. Edil Hassan, a Somali refugee and high school senior from Burlington, joined that rarefied group when she was selected as one of only 16 recipients nationwide of the awards’ highest honor, a Portfolio Gold Medal and college scholarship. Hassan is a graduate of the MFA at Washington University in St. Louis, where she was the senior poetry fellow.
Highlights of the 2026 Vermont Scholastic Art & Writing Awards:
• 280 students from 43 schools throughout Vermont submitted a total of 707 works of art or writing for consideration, marking the highest levels of participation since BMAC began administering the Vermont Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 2010.
• 167 students received a total of 279 awards — 59 Gold Keys, 60 Silver Keys, and 160 Honorable Mentions.
• Three seniors were awarded Gold Keys for their portfolios (collections of six works): Dashiell Moyse of Brattleboro Union High School, for his art portfolio, and Lillian Allen of Craftsbury Academy and Marcus Burns of St. Johnsbury Academy, for their writing portfolios. All three will now be entered into consideration for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards’ highest honor, a Portfolio Gold Medal, 16 of which will be awarded nationwide in both art and writing. Winners of Portfolio Gold Medals receive scholarship awards of $12,500.
• Chloe Rosner, a senior at the Putney School, received eight awards in art, including a Gold Key and American Visions nomination for her painting “Sitting, Thinking.”
• Of the 59 works awarded Gold Keys, only one was created by a middle schooler — “Shades of Pink,” a poem by Tess Wiesmore, a student at The Grammar School in Putney.
• The schools with the highest number of award winners were Stratton Mountain School (30), St. Johnsbury Academy (27), and Burlington Technical Center (23).
2026 Vermont ‘Gold Key’ Winners
Lillian Allen (Wolcott), grade 12, Craftsbury Academy – Personal Essay & Memoir, Speculative Fiction, Writing Portfolio
Ava Anderson (Chester), grade 12, Stratton Mountain School – Personal Essay & Memoir
Marcus Burns (Lyme, N.H.), grade 12, St. Johnsbury Academy – Portfolio Category (Writing)
Chelsea Charles (Winhall), grade 12, Stratton Mountain School – Personal Essay & Memoir
Beomgeun Choi (Burke), grade 10, Burke Mountain Academy – Critical Essay (2) (American Voices Nominee)
Piper Cubell (Stratton), grade 12, Stratton Mountain School – Personal Essay & Memoir
Will Cunningham (Burlington), grade 11, Rice Memorial High School – Ceramics & Glass (American Visions Nominee)
Emmaline Deakins (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y), grade 10, Stratton Mountain School – Personal Essay & Memoir
Quinn Dorsey (Manchester), grade 11, Burr & Burton Academy / RISD Pre-College Program – Comic Art
Vivian Elliott (Brattleboro), grade 12, Brattleboro Union High School – Mixed Media
Emily Faucher (Winhall), grade 11, Stratton Mountain School – Personal Essay & Memoir
Amos Foster (South Burlington), grade 11, South Burlington High School – Speculative Fiction
Jane Fox (Framingham, Mass.), grade 11, Putney School – Painting
Arabella Frost (South Newfane), grade 9, Putney School – Short Story
Kosmos Gletsos (Craftsbury Common), grade 11, Green Mountain Technology & Career Center – Photography
Campbell Goodman (Winhall), grade 10, Stratton Mountain School – Critical Essay
Desmond Grace (Brattleboro), grade 12, Brattleboro Union High School – Personal Essay & Memoir
Rhys Grandy (Los Angeles, Calif.), grade 11, Mountain School of Milton Academy – Poetry (2), Short Story
Francie Graves (Putney), grade 11, Putney School – Fashion
Annie Harte (Burlington), grade 12, Burlington High School – Screenplays & Scripts
Scarlett Hersh (Monroe, NH), grade 10, St. Johnsbury Academy – Critical Essay
Yousong Huang (Saxtons River), grade 11, Vermont Academy – Digital Painting, Drawing & Collage
Rylie Johnston (Waterford), grade 12, St. Johnsbury Academy – Experimental Photography
Gilbert Komuves (Brattleboro), grade 10, Brattleboro Union High School – Photography (American Visions Nominee)
Mia Konefal (South Burlington), grade 10, South Burlington High School – Personal Essay & Memoir
Mayla Landis-Marinello (Middlesex), grade 12, Union 32 High School – Poetry (American Voices Nominee)
Seonhye Ma (Putney), grade 11, Putney School – Painting (American Visions Nominee)
Clara Maker (Calais), grade 11, Union 32 High School – Poetry
Ariana Marshall (Fairfield), grade 12, Burlington Technical Center – Drawing, Illustration
Amity Martell (Jeffersonville), grade 11, Green Mountain Technology & Career Center – Photography
Maddy McHale (Burlington), grade 11, Burlington Technical Center – Photography (American Visions Nominee)
Amanda Montalva (Putney), grade 10, Brattleboro Union High School – Photography (2)
Dashiell Moyse (Brattleboro), grade 12, Brattleboro Union High School – Art Portfolio
Levi Olsen (Shelburne), grade 12, Burlington Technical Center – Photography
Myrrh Pitkin (Vergennes), grade 12, Champlain Valley Union High School – Flash Fiction, Novel, Speculative Fiction, Personal Essay & Memoir (American Voices Nominee)
Miles Rae (Brattleboro), grade 11, Putney School – Short Story
Chloe Rosner (Marlboro), grade 12, Putney School – Painting (American Visions Nominee)
Allison Schmidt (Carroll, NH), grade 9, St. Johnsbury Academy – Drawing
Emma Sklar (Wardsboro), grade 10, Stratton Mountain School – Critical Essay (American Voices Nominee)
Leo Storm (Brattleboro), grade 11, Putney School – Personal Essay & Memoir
Lola Sullivan (Manchester), grade 10, Stratton Mountain School – Critical Essay
Samuel Thies (Brattleboro), grade 11, Brattleboro Union High School – Photography
Ruby Tillotson (Montgomery Center), grade 12, St. Johnsbury Academy – Personal Essay & Memoir
Jessica Tornabe (Burlington), grade 12, Burlington Technical Center – Photography
Maya Villemaire (Springfield), grade 12, Springfield High School – Mixed Media
Yuxuan Wang (St. Johnsbury), grade 11, St. Johnsbury Academy – Drawing
Benjamin Weinberger (Winhall), grade 10, Stratton Mountain School – Critical Essay
Tess Wiesmore (Brattleboro), grade 8, Grammar School – Poetry
River Wilson (South Burlington), grade 12, Burlington Technical Center – Photography
BMAC is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the Brattleboro Food Co-op, Brattleboro Savings & Loan, Brattleboro Subaru, C&S Wholesale Grocers, and Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters. For more information, visit brattleboromuseum.org, call 802-257-0124, or email [email protected].
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