Springfield student receives Congressman Welch’s Choice Award

COURTESY
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — A student from North Springfield, Vermont was chosen as one of the winners of the Congressman Welch’s Choice Awards, part of the 37th annual Congressional Art Competition at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.

Eva Harris of North Springfield was one of the winners in that category for “Pesticide,” created with ink and Prismacolor marker. Eva is a student at Springfield High School.

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) announced the full list of competition winners on Monday. Aidan Bundock of Shelburne and Champlain Valley Union High School won first-place honors for his watercolor painting, “Midnight Snacks.” Bundock’s piece was selected from a field of 169 student entries representing 39 high schools across Vermont.

“Every year, I am amazed by the creativity of talented young artists across Vermont,” Welch said. “As always, picking a winner was incredibly tough.”

The Congressional Art Competition is a nationwide high school visual art competition initiated in 1981 by then-Rep. Jim Jeffords to celebrate and encourage the artistic talent of young people from across the country. High school students submit entries to their U.S. representative’s office, and panels of local artists in each congressional district select the winners. The first-place pieces are then displayed for one year in the tunnel between the U.S. Capitol building and the three House office buildings — a route traveled daily by members of Congress, their staffs, and tourists from all over the country.

The full list of award-winners, all from Vermont, include the following:

Top three winners:

Third place: Elm La Point, Craftsbury, “Armor,” photography, Green Mountain Technology and Career Center; Second place: Sarah Neff, Waitsfield, “Scarlette,” digital photography, Harwood Union High School; First place: Aidan Bundock, Shelburne, “Midnight Snacks,” watercolor, Champlain Valley Union High School.

Honorable Mentions:

Tyler Skroski, Warren, “Take a Hike,” charcoal, Harwood Union High School; Grace Clement, East Thetford, “Summer Parlor,” dry point etching, Thetford Academy; and Sydney Glickman, Williston, “Serenity,” colored pencil, Champlain Valley Union High School.

Judge’s Choice Awards:

Cara Davis, Burlington “Untitled,” chalk pastel, Horizon’s Alternative High School; Lily Currier, Wheelock, “Lily in Yellow,” tempura paint, paint and ink, Lyndon Institute; and Evlyn Hislop, Stannard, “Untitled,” mixed media, Cabot High School.

Other winners of the Congressman Welch’s Choice Awards:

Lydia Pitts, New Haven, “Fragmented Thoughts,” mixed media, Mt. Abraham Union High School;

Brooke Foster, Hardwick, “Fields of Hardwick,” acrylic, Hazen Union High School; Catie Spaulding, Sheldon, “Snowy Eyes,” silver gelatin print, Bellows Free Academy; Will Riley, Stowe, “Bubba’s Bacon” digital photography, Stowe High School; Tasia LaFond, Williamstown, “Pulchritude,” graphite, Williamstown Middle High School; Elizabeth Chitambar, Newport, “Wilder Mind,” mixed media, North Country Union High School; Britney Kasuba, Poultney, “The Road Less Taken,” photography, Poultney High School; Ryan Shirlock, Barre, “Green Mountain Quarry,” photography, Central Vermont Career Center; Cassidy Deedman, Dover, “Eternal Bloom,” nature printing, Twin Valley Middle High School; and Helen Bujold, South Burlington, “Lucy,” acrylic, South Burlington High School.