Camden and his artwork “Roses are Red” Photo: Submitted
VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Jefferson Elementary School student Camden Larson is the proud winner of Artsonia’s Artist of the Week contest, a voting competition held on Artsonia.com, the world’s largest collection of student art portfolios exhibiting over 80 million pieces of student art.
Larson received more than 1,100 online votes for his winning art titled, ‘Roses are Red.’
“I love to see my art teacher, Mrs. Anderson,” Larson said. “She’s retiring after this school year and I will miss her a lot. I also love to draw, so it’s one of my favorite times of the week.”
When asked how he felt when he found out he won Artist of the Week, Larson said, “I felt proud of myself and happy that I would earn art supplies for my school.”
Larson’s teacher, Cheri Anderson has been teaching art for more than 40 years. Anderson is a passionate art educator who truly enjoys teaching her students art history and coaching them through the art creation process.
“It’s so much fun to see the excitement on my students’ faces when they learn about a new artist or technique and to see the pride they have in their own creation,” Anderson said. “I believe my classroom is a place where every student can feel success. I stress to my students that art is unique and what one person feels is a mistake, another may think is wonderful. That’s the beauty of art.”
When asked how she felt to have one of her students recognized for their artistic achievement, Anderson said, “The arts are so important, especially in these times. It’s an outlet for all of us to cope with the struggles that we are enduring. To have one of my students recognized, rewards my student for the hard work he has given every time he walks into my class.”
Anderson is one of the thousands of art teachers from over 100 countries around the world who use Artsonia to showcase their student art, crowdsource lesson plans and help fundraise for their classrooms. Artsonia lets family and friends of student artists create and purchase organic keepsakes from the student art, and then gives back 20 percent of all revenue to the local art classroom.
Artsonia developed Artist of the Week ten years ago as a way to encourage teachers to submit student artwork and engage the school and community to vote on and recognize students for their achievements. Every week, Artsonia selects 12 random submissions in each of four different age groups (PreK-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12) from artwork submitted the previous week. Voting is then open to the public for several days before the winner is announced.
Blick Art Materials generously donates a $100 gift certificate to the winning school and an individual $50 gift certificate to the student artist.
“Our mission at Artsonia is to bring communities together to celebrate children’s artistic expressions,” said Jim Meyers, CEO and co-founder of the company. “Artist of the week is a perfect way to get local schools, families and friends involved in the process of creating, recognizing and cherishing student art.”
For more information, visit artsonia.com.