Four King School visual artists were selected for the Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition at the Hartford Art School. The competition is an affiliate of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the nation's most prestigious and longest-running recognition for young creatives, the award boasts a rich history of honoring exceptional talent, including icons like Zaha Hadid and Jeff Koons!

In her second consecutive year being selected, Sydney Hauben ’25 received an Honorable Mention. Nina Griffith ’27 earned both a Silver Key and an Honorable Mention, while Emma Lange ’27 qualified for the national competition with a Gold Key award, and Gates Seidelmann ’27 was awarded a Silver Key.

“These awards are nationally recognized and serve as a benchmark for excellence in young artists,” said Chair of the Art and Design Department, Brady Shoemaker.

King’s Art and Design program encourages students to explore topics that deepen their understanding of themselves and the world around them, helping them express their ideas and strengthen their self-assurance.

Sydney’s piece, "Buttons,” and Emma’s “Floating Dream," incorporated mixed media. Nina's sculpture, “Drained,” and her illustration, “Waiting in the Shade,” reflected her range in medium choices. Gates’ passion for the great outdoors came through in her "Plein Air in Chalk Pastel."

“It’s a huge honor!” said Emma, whose work fused her love of art and design with her passion for basketball.

“I taught myself how to draw zen tangle floral designs and developed that ability to draw on different media,” she said.

She initially created the piece by drawing on a basketball but decided to take it further.

“I wanted to make it a hanging display and add some personality to it,” she said. “That’s when I thought I should make it into a chandelier with a bunch of jewels and plastic diamonds. The job was extremely tedious and precise with trial and error, but I couldn’t be happier with the result. I worked countless hours on it and am so happy it got the recognition it deserved.”

This process of pushing ideas to their limits reflects the core principles of King’s Art and Design program, where creative expression is approached intellectually. Projects integrate social, cultural, and historical perspectives, with students encouraged and supported as they explore academic topics through various mediums.

Nina's two pieces reflect the creative growth that exploring new materials is meant to facilitate.

For her sculpture “Drained,” she used stoneware to hand-sculpt a sink. After several iterations, she added resin to create the illusion of water swirling down the drain.

“My main idea was to capture the feeling of being physically ‘drained’ from keeping grades up,” she said, adding that the inspiration behind the piece was to capture the essence of her student life. “Hence, the literal grades and report cards spiraling down a sink with stickers to capture the reaction and the outcome of the grades.”

Her second piece serves as a calming counterbalance to “Drained.” In “Waiting in the Shade,” she used pastels to capture the welcoming environment of the King community. 

“I wanted to capture meaning with the colors I used,” she said of the bold oranges and greens she chose to reflect kindness and friendship. “It was exciting and liberating to work with a medium I had not used before to create this piece.”  

For Gates, the medium was less important than the location she chose to focus on.

“I thought the positioning and lighting of the trees were fascinating,” she said, adding that she began the piece with an underwash of vibrant, pigmented colors, which she set in place using alcohol before layering the true colors on top. In some areas of the piece, the underwash remains visible, helping the other colors to stand out.

While Gates developed an appreciation for plein air painting, which allowed her to study the landscape closely, she also encountered the challenges of working with chalk pastels. She looks forward to exploring new mediums in her future landscape work.

Last year, Sydney earned a Silver Medal in the national competition. She continues her artistic journey this year with a piece designed to evoke nostalgia and prompt reflection on the past. Buttons are fastened over handwritten words from children’s books and adorned with hair clips, each representing a memory. The buttons form a path leading to a concentrated center, encouraging viewers to reflect on the experiences that have shaped their present selves.

“It serves as a reminder of happy, carefree times—moments when you were becoming who you are,” Sydney explains. “These emotions can help cope with change and the fear of the future.”

The students’ success reflects the program's ongoing efforts to empower students by fostering a sense of accomplishment and growth, encouraging them to take pride in their work and abilities.

“The awards usually boost students' confidence in their artmaking as well as enhancing their portfolios and college applications,” said Shoemaker, noting that King students consistently win Scholastic Art awards, which speaks to the strength of the program and the skill and creativity of its students.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers is a nonprofit organization committed to identifying students with exceptional artistic and literary talent and raising the visibility of their work through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The awards offer students opportunities for recognition, exhibition, publication, and scholarships. Jurors review entries without knowledge of the student’s gender, age, ethnicity, or hometown, focusing instead on originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal vision.