Clowes Memorial Hall of Butler University received the 2014 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Key for Excellence in the Field on Friday, June 6, at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

The Scholastic Awards, which are presented by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, selected Clowes Memorial Hall for this honor for its dedication to young people, perseverance through challenges, and expansion of the program to reach 1,000 more participants than previously reached. Clowes Memorial Hall was also celebrated for going above and beyond the basic program requirements to provide additional opportunities for creative teenagers in the Central and Southern Indiana Art & Writing Region.

Clowes Memorial Hall serves as the Scholastic Awards Regional Affiliate presenting the Central and Southern Indiana Region of The Awards and is one of 115 affiliates across the nation. The 56 counties in this region have increased submissions since Clowes began the partnership with the Alliance five years ago. In 2014, Clowes boasted an impressive 2,337 submissions in art and writing, thanks largely to the development and implementation of innovative outreach efforts such as publishing a 400-page anthology available on Amazon.com that features regional award-winning writing. Additionally, Clowes developed the ART.WRITE.NOW Regional Exhibition, an art and writing exhibition of selected 2013 regional award winning works.

In a letter informing Clowes of its selection for the award, Alliance for Young Artist & Writers Executive Director Virginia McEnerney thanked Clowes Memorial Hall for its support of Clowes Education Manager Cassandra Pixey in her role as Affiliate Advisory Council Chair and as an Alliance board member. “The creativity and intelligence she brought to the Council and the board cannot be overstated.”

McEnerney continued, “It is clear that Clowes Memorial Hall of Butler University values deeply the students and educators it serves. Congratulations…for your continued commitment to recognizing the originality and voice of Indiana’s creative teens.”

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards was founded in 1923. Since that time, the awards have grown to become the longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the United States while maintaining the nation’s largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. Past winners include such noteworthy artists as Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, and John Updike.

Media contact:
Joshua Lingenfelter
jlingenf@butler.edu
317-940-6411