DoSomething.org once again asked teens to use their creative talent as a tool to advocate for arts education this year, collecting 3,553 pieces of art during the six week campaign.
In partnership with www.FineArtAmerica.com, Make Art, Save Art mobilized young artists nationwide to advocate for the arts by submitting artwork and testimonials on the importance of arts education online at www.makeartsaveart.org and sharing those artistic expressions with their social networks (such as Facebook and Twitter).
Arts education is being cut from schools nationwide. Studies show children who study music and the arts have higher grades, score better on standardized tests, have better attendance records, and are more active in the community than other students.
One exceptional artist was selected by the panel of judges and will receive a $5,000 grant for their school art program and a $1,000 college scholarship. The winning artwork can be seen here.
“Arts education is such an important part of learning,” says Christina Blacken who heads up arts programming at DoSomething.org. “And with so many fantastic pieces of art submitted throughout this campaign, it is evident that we need to continue to push this cause.”
Out of the thousands of submitted works, the top 10 artists with the most shares through social media networks, along with 5 additional art pieces hand selected by DoSomething staff, were entered into a finalist pool, which was then shared with the panel of expert judges. Participating judges included spokeswoman Tinsel Korey (The Twilight Saga) renowned photographer Nigel Barker, actress Yvette Nicole Brown (Community), Emilio Sosa (Designer/Founder ESOSA Inc, Project Runway, Cheri Ehrlich (Senior Museum Educator/Teen Programs Coordinator, Brooklyn Museum), Raman Frey (Co-Owner, Frey Norris Contemporary & Modern Gallery), Christopher Vroom (Founder, Chairman and Executive Vice President of Artspace.com) and Calder Zwicky (Associate Educator, Teen and Community Programs, The Museum of Modern Art).
