John Glenn, Donahue, student wins online art competition
John Glenn Elementary School, Donahue, student Cora Rathjen is the 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 100 million pieces of student art.
Here is her winning artwork:
Cora received more than 600 online votes for her winning art depicting a tree.
“I like the shape of the tree,” she said. “I painted it by dipping the paint and dabbing the sponge. It was a lot of fun.”
When asked how she felt when she found out she won Artist of the Week, Rathjen said, “Really, really good!.”
Rathjen’s teacher, Elise Ward, has been teaching art for more than 10 years. “I am passionate about advocating and supporting visual arts class for our children because it fosters creativity, ingenuity, teamwork, open expression and skills that students use as scaffolding to thrive as their brains grow and learn,” Ward said.
Ward is one of the thousands of art teachers who use Artsonia to showcase their student art, manage the art room, crowdsource lesson plans, and fund raise for their classrooms. Artsonia lets family and friends of student artists create and purchase custom keepsakes from the student art and then gives back 20 percent of all revenue to the local art classroom.
“Artsonia has made a big, positive impact in my art rooms over the years,” Ward said. Artsonia allows me to see, grade, celebrate, and share every-single artist by compiling a digital artist portfolio for each student.”
Artsonia developed Artist of the Week 15 years ago to encourage teachers to submit student artwork and engage the school and community to vote on and recognize students for their creative 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 open to the public for several days before the winner is announced.
“I am so proud of my student, Cora, for being recognized for this achievement. Because of Artsonia’s Artist of the Week Award program, she is being seen and celebrated for her creativity,” Ward said.
Blick Art Materials 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.”
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About Artsonia
Artsonia is the world’s largest online collection of student art and a destination for thousands of art educators in more than 100 countries worldwide, curating more than 100 million pieces of student art. Artsonia works with teachers to create online school galleries and individual digital student art portfolios. Parents and relatives can view the art online,leave comments, and order keepsakes featuring the artwork. As part of its mission, Artsonia donates 20 percent of merchandise revenue directly back to local classrooms. Since 2000, it has donated more than $14 million.
A 2022 Common Sense Education top pick for comprehensive resources for arts education, Artsonia inspires students and promotes the sharing of art with its weekly Artist of the Week campaign and online gift shop — all while helping to fund local school art programs.
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