Scholastic Awards Honor Young Artists and Writers

26 May 2011

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

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I'm Christopher Cruise. On our program this week, we play music from Lady Gaga’s latest release.

But first, we tell about the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards – high honors for some for young people. And we meet one of the big winners.

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Scholastic Awards

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Hundreds of young artists are gathering in New York for a ceremony to honor them and their work. They will receive the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. The awards have been in existence for more than eighty years. Some earlier winners have gone on to become famous. They include artist Andy Warhol, writer Sylvia Plath and actor/director Robert Redford .

Here is Faith Lapidus with more about the awards and their administrator, the nonprofit group Alliance for Young Artists and Writers.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Scholastic is a worldwide publishing, education and media company. It produces books, magazines, film and toys for children. The Scholastic website says a main goal of the company is to help boys and girls read and learn.

The company was formed ninety years ago. The Scholastic Awards for Art and Writing followed soon after.

VIRGINIA MCENERNEY: “The awards were started in nineteen twenty-three by M. R. Robinson, who wanted to find a way to give recognition and encouragement to students who were creative and who were doing original artistic and literary work in the classroom.”