<p>did some analysis on the vis arts finalists and don't know what to think... </p>
<p>Of the 24 finalists, 12 are from just three high schools, with 5 finalists coming from the School of Performing and Visuals Arts in Texas.</p>
<p>2/3 of all the finalists are from just three states: WI, TX and FL. </p>
<p>Are these schools/states producing the country's finest artists or do they just better understand the NFAA judging criteria and spend more time, class time I would assume for the Arts high schools, preparing for it?</p>
<p>Thanks, m&s -- I think we know the answer to your question. The competition or evaluative criteria are still fairly narrow. </p>
<p>Looking at the MI results (my state), I can see one student from Cranbrook in vis arts, and lots in performance from Interlochen. These are the leading "arts-focused" schools. But by no means do these schools monopolize the production of talented artists in this state.</p>
<p>I think NFAA may well be a good thing but would still question its truly "national" character despite the fact that there are winners from many states.</p>
<p>Spelmom,
That's a very good & valid question.
As you said, your son's talent & perf quality have been verified in other venues & wrt previous ARTS winners.
So it seems inexplicable!</p>
<p>Some possible factors could include:
different judges this year,
whether they preferred a different approach/style/nuance,
CD quality, other intangibles, ...?
It's a mystery indeed!</p>
<p>I have some questions about the Scholastic visual art awards. We live in an unsponsored region, so if my daughter submitted work she would have to submit to the region-at-large (work is sent to and judged in NYC) and only would receive an award if selected to be included in national judging. </p>
<p>Also, I don't think her school has ever had anyone submit work before, so she would have to ask her school to register (and pay the school registration fee). Am I right in thinking that it's harder to receive an award when judged in the region-at-large? I'm reluctant for my daughter to ask the school to register and have her go through the hassles of submitting her work (not having experience and not having a teacher who can guide her) if the chance of recognition is low. It's significantly more complicated than submitting writing.</p>
<p>Also, I noticed that many of the NFAA winners in visual arts also received Scholastic art portfolio awards. Probably not a coincidence. Makes me think these are not independently judged.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Region-At-Large: does offer regional Silver/Gold Key awards.
It's not true that the only awards avail are National.</p></li>
<li><p>Your child's school does not have to register.
Your child simply submits directly to the Scholastic Awards,
just follow exact entry rqmts (signed Entry Forms, & meeting all rqmts for the category).</p></li>
<li><p>Scholastic & ARTS are independent of each other (though it's possible that they can share some of the same judges).
The results may appear to be "correlated" mainly bec the high quality of submissions to each of these contests.
One specific example to bolster that these 2 contests are not linked in judging:
one ARTS 2005 Finalist and Presidential Arts Scholar,
won national Silver (not Gold) award, in 2005 Scholastic competition.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>fbc001, this page is what comes up when I put in our zip code. It appears that for art, students in unrepresented areas are required to have their schools registered, unless I am missing something.</p>
<p>Very sorry to mislead you.
you are quite correct & I was not aware that Art & Writing has such different rqmts!
(My D entered Scholastics in the last 2 years, Region-At-Large, for Writing only).</p>
<p>Can you help & expedite the school registration process ASAP, as the
early registration deadline is soon?</p>
<p>I wondering if anyone can offer an opinion about how difficult it is to be judged highly enough to be forwarded onto the national competition (and thereby be awarded a gold key) when entered in the region-at-large. I'm wary of asking the school to register and pay, and of sending precious art (to us) to NYC for months at a time, if the chances for recognition are low.</p>
<p><i>...from Carver Center for the Arts and Technology...</i></p><i>
<p>seven (count em, seven! painting teacher Terry McDaniel has been known to exclaim) ARTS winners this year: the seniors Abdi Farrah, Leah Fassbinder, Amy Reid, Andy Tanner, and Shannon Wenker, and the 04 alumni Jeremy Hyman and Dmitry Morozov. Competition organizers say this is an unprecedented feat; nothing close to one third of the ARTS winners have come from one school in the past.</p>
</i><p><i>Not saying the don't work hard or have talent. Does show what one focused teacher/department can do.</i></p>
<p>i go to school in the towson area @ towson high school. one thing people must recognize about schools like carver is that the individual voice of a student is often suppressed. many magnet schools success is based upon how many students they get to win competitions like NFAA ARTS and scholastics. so i wouldn't take it too seriously. the students are talented, but think about it..</p>
<p>this year i got honorable mention in visual arts. there were no visual arts finalists or (i believe) no honorable mentions @ carver. our art dept. rivals if not is better than carvers, and our voices are allowed to shine through. these are just competitions, not mesuring standards of how good a young artist is. subjective.</p>
<p>and yes, students are trained to win these competitions, end of story. look at any magnet schools charter. (i'm not trying to demean the system, its just a fact, a sad one)</p>
<p>congratulations on your accomplishment. It is even more significant if your prepared and entered on your own initiative, which I am assuming you did.</p>
<p>Not all arts high schools approach these awards the same way. My D was the only visual arts student who applied from hers. </p>
<p>Right or wrong, fair or not, many of the bigger art colleges do use these awards as a way to measure and compare students and determine merit scholarship offers.</p>
<p>As good as the finalists were last year, there is an eerie sameness to the portfolios. Clearly there seems to be a slant towards drawings or paintings of human subjects, done in a photorealistic style. Often the portfolios consist of the same or similar subjects doing the same types of activities in all the portfolio contents.</p>
<p>My S is a past winner and Presidential Scholar in the Arts, (2003). He entered for "spoken only" theater.</p>
<p>His tape was made in a classroom against a plain background on a friend's digital camera. Nothing fancy. Didn't spend a penny on making it "high quality". </p>
<p>You are assigned a "number", so no one knows your name or who you are as the tape is being reviewed. You are judged against a "standard" for your art. </p>
<p>If you have questions regarding Arts Week feel free to email me.</p>
<p>WOW, congratulations are in order! Your son must be an incredible talent and you must be so proud.</p>
<p>I am so glad you posted about the quality of your video tape. That is great information for those students reading this. Obviously, if you follow the directions and have a great talent, it will show through.</p>
<p>Please tell me what your son is doing now. I would love to hear. </p>
<p>I have had two student get awards; one young man, merit award in acting and is now in Atlantic at Tisch, the other is a current H.S senior who won honorable mention in acting.</p>
<p>WCT'S son is at CMU for a BFA in Acting now. I agree with her that the video need not be anything more than amateur. My D, a merit award winner in MT, was filmed on my video camera, on the school stage like any other home video might be. Plain black curtain background. </p>
<p>I would love for wcts son and my CMU student to meet and have tried conversing via PMs, but I am being told my message box is full but it is actually empty! I have been having this problem for some time.</p>
<p>Anyone know who I report this to? Who can fix it? Maybe I am doing something wrong when I delete messages.</p>
<p>Thanks for anyones help on this,
xxx,Mary Anna</p>
<p>As far as video quality is concerned, I know it matters a great deal when it comes to filming and editing the dance technique portion of the tapes. You need to follow the instructions to the letter, which include absolutely nothing in the background, 4 different dance techniques not choreographed and no music if you want to (we had music and were a little choreographed- what are you supposed to do just kick and leap?) Introductions to each variation (which I edited in last from another location), 2 minutes total for all 4 (done at first location), introduction before solo piece (shot at a 3rd location to get the full stage), with name of song, composer and choreographer's (?) name (meanwhile we are told not to mention the teacher/school, and guess who the choreographer is?), and ending with first a head shot, then a shoulder shot, then a full body shot (shot at 2nd location and added in.) Please! I definitely blew it for my d due to my lousy editing of all of this criterea which her score attested to. I know this because, like spelmom's s, my d has won and always places at the national dance competitions she's been soloing in since 2000, and even one international (last year she represented the US in Germany with a duo.) The score she received from NFAA actually made her laugh and tell me what a lousy videographer I was! (Well, duh, but I thought talent was talent and it really shouldn't matter that much...)</p>
<p>The lesson is for future ref: follow those directions to a T, and if doing dance, get someone who knows what they're doing edit, and probably shoot the whole shebang in one location! </p>
<p>I would have to agree with Melsmom based on my limited experience. My son submitted an entry in jazz performance. He is a saxophonist. Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances he eventually had to play to recorded music and record on cassette tape rather than cd. The instructions emphasized that a live rhythm section was preferred and a cd was strongly preferred. So while he was within the rules, I did not really expect him to win. What I did not expect was his score, which made me wonder what were they listening to, or more precisely, did they even listen at all or did they just toss it aside and assign it a score?</p>