New Hampshire Participates in Congressional Art Contest
ART
New Hampshire Union Leader
Alyssa Marcus
Boston University Washington News Service
April 3, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 3 – When Victoria Bouchard, a student at Manchester Memorial High School, traveled to the nation’s capital for the first time last year, she was more than another tourist — she arrived as an artist helping to decorate “the people’s House.”
As one of the winners in an annual art contest for high school students sponsored by the House of Representatives, Bouchard got to see her work gracing the halls of Congress – an experience other New Hampshire high schoolers could share this year.
Since the contest, “An Artistic Discovery,” was started in 1982, more than 650,000 students have participated in the competitions that are held in congressional districts nationwide every spring. The deadlines for entries in this year’s competitions in New Hampshire’s two congressional districts are in April.
The winning entries from each district are displayed for a year in the tunnel that leads from the Capitol to the House office buildings before being sent back to the artists.
“We walk those halls all the time, and I know we discover new things about the incredible art that our young people are making,” Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) said. “Each showcase is such extraordinary talent.”
In addition to having their art displayed on Capitol Hill, each winner is eligible for a scholarship form Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. Although the $5,000 scholarship is contingent on the student’s applying to and being accepted into the college, it’s renewable all four years for a total of $20,000, according to Erin Banks, the college’s
director of scholarships.
Banks said the contest is “a wonderful way to identify the most talented art students. It’s a good way for us to find students who might be a good fit for the college.” Many students also are eligible for other tuition discounts, she said.
According to the Web sites of Reps. Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, eligible media for the competitions are paintings, drawings, collages, prints, mixed media, computer-generated and photography. In the 2nd Congressional District entries can be no larger than 32 inches by 32 inches. In the 1st Congressional District the dimensions can be no more than 30 inches by 30 inches. The deadline for entries is April 6 in the 1st District and April 25 in the 2nd District.
Harry Gural, Shea-Porter’s chief of staff, said that entries for the 1st District can be sent to the Manchester office. For the 2nd District, entries can be submitted to the Concord office, the Keene office or the Nashua office. Students in the North Country, Rep. Hodes said, should call his Concord office at 603-223-9814.
Bouchard’s winning entry from the 1st District, done in pastels, is entitled “Math and Me.”
“I had never experienced something like that before,” she said of her trip to Washington last May. “It was brand new. It was great.”
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