Burlingame student’s artwork to be displayed at US Capitol

(KRON) — A Burlingame High School student has been chosen to have her art showcased at the U.S. Capitol Building. The piece is both a work of art and a work of activism.

KRON4 spoke with the high school senior about her political message.

When you first look at Lauren Cheng’s artwork, you question what it means. She explained how it’s a message about the number of mass shootings in the U.S. and her plea to lawmakers to do more to prevent them.

Every year, Congress holds a high school art competition.

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A U.S. representative from each district picks a winner, and this year Rep. Kevin Mullen picked Burlingame High School senior Lauren Cheng.

She explained how her graphic art piece is also a message. See a couple of her art pieces below.

“Highlights the issue of gun violence in our country and uses 646 dots to symbolize the 646 mass shootings in the year 2022,” Cheng said.

Every year that the 17-year-old went to school in Burlingame, she watched school shootings in other U.S. towns make the news.

Living with the anxiety that her own school could be targeted.

“There have been school shootings, shootings in the public, shootings directed towards racial minorities,” Cheng said. “In my middle school, we had a walkout and we had a potential school shooting threat.”

As a winner, Cheng’s art will be hung in the U.S. Capitol building for one year. She’s been told that it will be seen in a hallway between congressional offices and the house floor.

It’s not her only win this week.

Burlingame High School Principal Dr. Jen Fong says Cheng has also been selected as a U.S. Presidential Scholar for the Arts.

“Great that she was selected by the White House and equally great that she will have her work hanging in the capitol with the legislators walking by and everyone else visiting,” Fong said.

The winning art displays a QR code, so passersby can scan it with their phones and read more about mass shootings and current statistics.

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Bigger than the QR code are the words “Please No More Dots,” and the artist hopes the message is clear to lawmakers in Washington.

“Having it serve as a reminder that we can’t become numb to gun violence is really important,” Cheng said.

Cheng will be graduating from high school next Thursday. She’ll be headed to UC San Diego in the fall to study Design and Cognitive Science.

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