Fenimore Art Museum Announces Winners of the 2023 Young at Art Regional Youth Art Contest
Cooperstown, NY — On Saturday, June 10, teachers, families, and community members gathered at Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown to celebrate the achievements of young artists in Central New York. Over 300 artists in grades 6-12 participated in the museum’s annual Young at Art! Regional Youth Art Contest. The artworks of 38 young artists were selected to comprise the exhibition, Young at Art! Visions of Identity, on view at Fenimore Art Museum through July 23, 2023.
Gallery viewing, artmaking activities, and a live performance by the Little Delaware Youth Ensemble under the direction of Uli Speth preceded a keynote address by Nicole Condon-Shih, Dean of the School of Pratt Munson, and the announcement of winners by Michelle Bosma, Manager of Youth Programs at Fenimore Art Museum. Special awards were given to Braeden Victory of Cooperstown Central School, whose painting, Facets, illustrates the diverse identities that comprise a community. The Grand Prize Award was presented to Kyra Cornelia of Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School, whose digital painting, Compulsory Assimilation, invites us to consider how digital technologies shape our identities. The award for Outstanding Participation was presented to young artists from Owen D. Young Central School District by the instruction of Mr. John Gardner. Over 22 school districts participated inYoung at Art! in 2023, its third year.
Young at Art! is sponsored in part by Bank of Cooperstown, NYCM Insurance, the Black Family Foundation, and Stewart’s Holiday Match.
About Young at Art!
Young at Art! Regional Youth Art Contest serves young artists in grades 6-12 in Delaware, Otsego, Herkimer, and Oneida counties. In the fall, students are invited to create works of art related to an annual theme. This year’s theme is identity. Through the winter, artists are introduced to well-known works of art related to the theme and given artmaking prompts, as staff from the Fenimore travel to classrooms and homeschooling groups. Submissions are due in the Spring and a panel of diverse artists serve as judges for the contest, selecting works to comprise an exhibition and the recipients of special awards. For more information about Young at Art! and to participate next year, visit fenimoreartmuseum.org/youngatart2023.
About Fenimore Art Museum
Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass”—in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings; more than 125,000 historic photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region’s unique history; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprised of nearly 900 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes, and Prairie regions. Visit FenimoreArt.org.
