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Health & Fitness

Two UCS students earn national art honors

UCS student artists earn silver medals in this year's Scholastic Arts competition.

Two Utica Community Schools students have earned national honors in one of the country's most prestigeous student art competitions.

Megan Baniak, of Henry Ford II, and Micheal Kramer, of Eisenhower High School, earned silver medals in this year's Scholastic Arts Competition.

Baniak earned honors for her work "Lola, (Life's Little Wonders)." Her teacher is Kristine Cooper.

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Kramer earned honors for his work"Untitled," which he created as a student at Shelby Junior High School. His teacher was Lisa Grunewald.

Baniak and Kramer are part of more than 1,600 of the most talented and ambitious students in grades 7-12, to receive national medals.

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Students' works were blindly adjudicated, first locally through the 116 affiliates of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the presenting nonprofit of the Awards, and then nationally by panels of judges comprised of renowned artists, authors, educators, and art professionals.

This year's list of jurors included Edwidge Danticat, Myla Goldberg, Kurt Andersen, Althea Harper, Red Grooms, and Andres Serrano.

Works were judged on originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal vision or voice. Teachers of national winners were also recognized with awards.

This year's National Celebration will kick off in New York City on May 31 when the Empire State Building will be illuminated in gold, and the LED super signs at 1515 Broadway in Times Square will feature the Awards throughout the day.

That evening, national gold medal level winners will be honored onstage at a special ceremony at the world-famous Carnegie Hall. In addition, for the first time ever, in celebration of the 90th Anniversary, the ceremony will be webcast live from Carnegie Hall.

Select Award-winning art and writing will be exhibited at Parsons The New School for Design and the Pratt Manhattan Gallery through June 15, 2013. The exhibition and accompanying public programs are co-sponsored by the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design.

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