Lyme-Old Lyme High School seniors Mercedes Crespo (left) and Madelyne Grabowski (right) were both awarded Gold Keys at the Connecticut Scholastic Awards, along with Hannah Lacey (not pictured.)

The Art Department of Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) is enjoying an exceptional year.

Seniors Madelyne Grabowski, Mercedes Crespo and Hannah Lacey were each awarded Gold Keys for their art portfolios at the 25th annual Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards.  All three are now being judged on the Scholastic Art Award national level.

Art work by Mercedes Crespo.

Grabowski and Crespo were also two out of only 13 students statewide to be awarded, on the basis of their portfolios, $20,000 annual scholarships from the University of Hartford Art School. This is the highest level of scholarship awarded by that school, which also hosts the Scholastic exhibit.

Others recognized at Scholastic were Anais Bolduc, Jennifer Dill and Elizabeth Scott, all for sculpture.  Bolduc and Dill earned Silver Keys, while Scott won honorable mention.  The Connecticut Regional Scholastic Art Awards is the largest juried student art exhibition in the state, with over 1,500 total art entries.

In the Shoreline Arts Alliance 2014 ‘Future Choice’s Juried High School Student Art Competition and Exhibition, currently hanging in the Sill House Gallery at Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts on Lyme St., Madelyne Grabowski and Mercedes Crespo took First and Second Place in Drawing respectively, while Jordan Bourne took top honors in the Video category.

‘Skatepark’ by Madeline Grabowski.

Isabel Ritrovato took Second Place in ceramics and Jennifer Dill earned an Honorable Mention in the same category. Samantha Lee and Laura Yee both earned Honorable Mentions in Painting, while Anais Bolduc and Jennifer Dill both were awarded Honorable Mentions in sculpture.

Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts awarded a total of three $10,000 scholarships, two of which were awarded to LOLHS students, namely Madeleine Grabowski and Hannah Lacey.  Also, three out of six Pre-College scholarships presented by Lyme Academy College, were awarded to LOLHS students Jordan Bourne, Alida Dahlke and James Kolb.

Other LOLHS students juried into the show, which encompasses students from 24 area towns, include Elizabeth Scott, Sophia Restrepo, Lexi Sibley, Meredith Kegley, and Kaetlin Kolar.

On top of all the individual successes at these two prestigious contests, the LOLHS Art Department as a whole was awarded the Judy Streeter Outstanding School Award by the Shoreline Arts Alliance on the basis of its level of participation in the competition and the number of awards it received.

Congratulations to all these outstanding artists and their fine teachers!