First it was writing, then art.

When senior Sydney Kiely was in eighth grade, she competed in the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition for the first time, submitting entries for the writing competition. This year, in addition to submitting creative writing works like she’s done before, she decided to give the art competition a shot as well, resulting in her getting regional-level recognition for her artwork. 

“I originally learned about [scholastic competitions] through writing because I was researching writing competitions, and so I entered it in 8th grade for writing, and I also entered it junior year for writing,” Kiely said. “So I was very aware of the competition by the time I entered it this year. And then I was looking through my art stuff and I thought that it could have a competitive chance in the competition, especially looking at the winners and seeing that it could potentially fit in there with those.” 

The awards that contestants can win are Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention, all of which provide regional recognition. The Gold Key gives contestants a ticket to the national competition though, with Kiely winning a Gold Key for one of her pieces and an honorable mention for another. 

“The one that won the Gold Key was my picture of the closet still life that I did, and then the honorable mention was the owl one with the globe and the bones,” Kiely said. “The pieces that get Gold Keys also get put towards the national competition, where you can win like gold and silver, and I think honorable mention again.” 

When it came to creating her closet still life, Kiely used previously learned techniques that brought her success in the past. 

“For my sophomore year, everyone in our class did a still life,” Kiely said. “And so, usually how you do still lifes is you take a picture first, and then you have that on your computer, and you print that out, and you grid it. Then I entered that piece into VASE and it did really well, and so later this year when I was looking for another way to incorporate another project, I decided to do the same thing. I took a picture of my closet, and I gridded it, and I did charcoals and created the still life that eventually got gold.” 

Kiely is happy with the results of the competition, considering the subjectivity of art.

“I feel like with the art ones, it’s a little bit more subjective, so things could change depending on who’s the viewer,” Kiely said. “I’ve won previous awards for one of the pieces that won an award, so it helps to know that there’s consistency.” 

According to AP 3D Art Design teacher Elise Reed, who had Kiely in her class last year, Kiely’s extensive knowledge about multiple subjects is an asset when it comes to artistic idea generation. 

“Sydney is a thinker, which is great for creative idea-making,” Reed said. “She has a really vast knowledge across multiple disciplines, not only art. She’s really into history. She’s in English and literature. So I think that helps her bring in all sorts of ideas into her visual art-making, which I think is really really special and not all kids have that. That’s her biggest strength, is really pulling in those all sorts of different ideas and inspirations from all disciplines.” 

To anyone considering entering their work into the scholastic art competition, Kiely’s advice is to not hesitate and take the leap. 

“Enter scholastics because you might win,” Kiely said. “You never know what’s gonna do well, necessarily. Sometimes you’re going to get lucky, and sometimes you’re not going to get lucky. It’s a really good way to have stuff for your college applications, and it’s really cheap compared to some art competitions. It’s like 10 dollars whereas a lot of them are like 50 bucks or something.”