TU paves the way for young talent
Olga Doshlygina, Staff writer
Blieve it or not, Consuelo Velasquez was 16 when she wrote and performed the passionate and sweet ‘Besame mucho.’ Francoise Sagane wrote her first novel ‘Hello, sadness’ at the age of 19 and went on to become a world-renowned French writer. Michael Dell became a businessman at 16. Guess which computers are now at the tip of your fingers all over campus? As it turns out, TU “sup-ports” more than just Dell’s youthful dream. In the artistic realm, it’s called ‘Scholastics.’
‘Scholastics’ is a national competition aimed at discovering artistic talents in middle and high school students. But to go national, a contestant has to pass the state level first, and for 17 years in a row TU has been coor-dinating the process. “TU is proud to support artistic talents in the young generation. For many years before 1987 art students didn’t have many chances, they were pretty much trapped, ”said Virgil Lampton, TU professor of Art Education and the all-time director of ‘Scholastics’ on the state level. The best of this year’s ‘Scholastics’ is now on exhibit in Phillips Hall and in the Allen Chapman Activity Center.
In November of 2004 three members of the jury—Anne Tomlins, director of Art for Tulsa Public Schools; Natalie Green, owner of a photography store in Tulsa; and Andy Zoeller, an recognized artist with a vast experience of judging Scholastics—had to sort through over 2000 works to select about a hundred gold key and a hundred silver key holders, as well as five American vision win-ners (grand prize). Now it’s time for them to move on.
On January 22 the Great Hall of ACAC will host the award ceremony with an antici-pated number of 500 to 700 guests coming—both students and their families. “In a way, this is a recruitment tool for TU,” says Mr. Lampton. “By coming here kids and their parents automatically learn more about TU, and that can influence their decision of pick-ing a college, whether to choose to major in art or something else.”
Winners will be awarded in a wide spec-trum of categories: ani-mation, ceramics and glass, design, digital imagery, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, video and film, painting, and photography. Also coming Saturday, TU professors and grad students offer 10 free workshops including Sculpture, Life Drawing and Monotypes, to pre-registered students.
At the award ceremony the top hundred young artists will get pins shaped as golden keys while their works will be sent to New York City to compete on a national level. Some of the students will get to go to the National Scholastics Award Ceremony in the Big Apple’s Carnegie Hall on June 2: for prizes, certificates, admiring looks from thousands of spectators in the audience, a tri-umphant walk down the stage, flashing cam-eras, and perhaps a congratulations speech from the First Lady. But Scholastics isn’t just a dazzling entertaining event. It is a spark in the eye, a new perspective, a ladle of hard work and a teaspoonful of luck. It is also an entrance pass into a world of opportunities. “Today, young athletes have tens of opportu-nities to show their talents. And “Scholastics” is the only way for artistically gifted teenag-ers to get recognized” says Virgil Lampton. Colleges will compete in an attempt to lure talented art students with generous scholar-ships. And TU is part of the game. Each year TU paves the road to its Art Department for four merited participants of the Scholastics contest. This is how TU senior in art education Kent Dyer came to the University.
Kent submitted his graphic design work to TU during his junior year in Holland Hall High School—and became a winner. “I didn’t even know that I won so I missed the local ceremony,” Kent recalls. “Thankfully, I found out in time to get into the national finals and ended up going to the Award ceremony which was then in the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. It was an amazing experience. The center was packed. I met young artists from all over the country. Hilary Clinton was there. As I was walking up to the stage to receive my award in front of thousands of people it dawned on me how BIG Scholastics actually was. In a society where art is sometimes looked down upon—it’s not a career and you can’t make a living doing it—I think this kind of support is great”.
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