As we continue this year’s “It Starts With the Arts” Campaign, the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable is thrilled to announce the selected artists from our citywide visual art competition to recognize and celebrate the talent of New York City students.

All entries were inspired by the title “It Starts With the Arts”. We received nearly 100 pieces of art from students across the City in a variety of mediums: photography, sculpture, digital art, and more! Winning artists were selected by members of the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable’s Advocacy Committee made up of educators, teaching artists, and cultural workers.

Winners for this competition have had their artwork printed on “It Starts With the Arts” campaign materials and will be featured in the coming months. Interested in having these postcards at your workplace or sharing with your community? Fill out this Google Form to request postcards and help us tell our city leaders to prioritize arts education in our city budget.

Scroll down to meet our four winners and five runners up for this year’s “It Starts With the Arts” Student Art Competition and learn more about the creation and inspiration behind their pieces.

Winners

Colorful Forest

By Jayvan C., Brooklyn, Age 5

When I make art, I can focus on something that I like to do. It shows my imagination and feelings. I like the colorful background with the dark trees and flowers.

Joy

By Kathryn M., Staten Island, Age 16

I think that art is an important way to express emotions and it allows us to connect with new people. This artwork is a still life of a colorful mess. It represents how childhood is a time when mess is welcomed, but it can be welcomed again through art as you grow up. I think art as a whole can be life-changing. It has helped me grow into a better person and everyone should have that opportunity.

This artwork was about purity, innocence, and the freedom to make mistakes as a child, but the ability to correct them as we mature. It represents the complexity of simplicity. As we grow up, sometimes we take the simplicity of childhood for granted. Art is important to me because it has inspired deeper thinking about my life and helped me discover connections with the things I’ve learned along the way.

I’m Right Here!

By Maya W., Brooklyn, Age 16

I think all students should have access to arts education because it helps others formulate and explore their creativity. Art was my gateway to expressing my feelings. It helps young minds learn to appreciate the littlest details. And it helps create bridges to grow closer connections.

Being born and raised in Brooklyn, surrounded by a Black family it’s not really common that you’d come out as an artist. Ever since I was able to pick up a crayon I would draw endlessly for hours on end.

In elementary school once, I cried while doing an art project. I wasn’t crying because I was distraught or sad, I just wanted to be noticed by someone and my former art teacher heard my cries. She helped me clean my tears and she told me that my art was beautiful, from then on she paid attention to me! She was definitely hard on me but it was only to further improve my skills as an artist.

Growing up, art helped me express and understand my own feelings on a canvas and I feel it’s helped me grow a closer connection to my family members. My insecurities, thoughts, goals, and dreams have been expressed in a healthy way to where they can hear me and try to find ways to help me. The art world helps create bridges, we should never let this beautiful world fall.

Art Can Show the Creative Side of Someone

By Natalie C., Queens, Age 11

Arts education is important because it can show the creative side of someone. Art can also make the world we live in more colorful and vibrant. When I was making this artwork, I was thinking how art can affect a person’s thinking and mindset.

Runners Up

Grieving

By East S., Bronx, Age 18

I think all students should have access to arts education because it shouldn’t be an opportunity afforded to select students lucky enough to attend well-funded schools. To have the freedom to engage with art in all forms within the classroom is a beautiful thing and to deny or restrict that freedom is to deny a necessary part of a child’s development.

I painted this piece on a slab of wood using acrylic paint. It expresses my sorrowful but appreciative viewpoint on my relationship with my father. As time has passed, my perspective has shifted from frustrations to being more grateful for the few positive memories I have. This artwork helped me work that out and feel a greater sense of closure. Staring at my sketches and myself with a paintbrush in hand, I was able to extract the greater point of all this being the fact that I can make art out of my story.

Fragmented Flair

By Ella J., Staten Island, Age 13

I think arts education is important because it’s how many students, including me, have found their own hearts and creativity. It helps students grow into what they aspire to be. It’s not just art on paper but also the arts, like design, theater, dance, music, and those that create.

My work displays my take on art with a mixed-media piece that reflects who I am. Yeah, it’s messy, but it’s a reflection of me as a growing kid. This art is an expression of me. Life would just be so blah without people expressing themselves and being who they want. Who wants to be a generic copy when you can be an original? It’s absolutely okay to express yourself, and in fact, it’s essential for personal growth and happiness. However, producing art is how I express myself as I’m more comfortable with it.

It Starts With the Arts

By Farah E., Brooklyn, Age 11

Arts education is important because it inspires us to explore our interests and find out more about ourselves. Arts education also gives us a chance to be creative and fall in love with art when we might not have had the chance otherwise. Art is all around us, so it is important to try to understand it.

In Brooklyn where I live, there is lots of art on buildings and sidewalks. I always loved looking at these artworks and thought that they made our city a more beautiful and nice place to live. My artwork shows people being inspired by these artworks on buildings.

The Path I Choose is Art

By Makayla H., Bronx, Age 12

Arts education is important to me because it helps students think freely and be as creative as they want to be. They could express themselves through their own different styles and through different art forms. These differences are very important to me because I think people should see and understand people’s differences and accept them and art helps with that.

I wanted to create an artwork that shows someone starting out with art and then how they are progressing now. So I decided to make a person hugging their past self to show that they started with the arts and now look at how far they have come. If you look very closely at my artwork, you can see that the grown up has become the CEO of one of the best art companies. It shows that when you start with the arts, you can continue to grow with it and reach very amazing things and amazing art.

Growth

By Sabina H., Brooklyn, Age 17

I think all students should have access to arts education because of the emotional outlet that art provides for young people. This piece shows the freedom and imagination that art can give to a student. High school can be a time where young people are under a lot of pressure to adhere to social standards, but art can give them an opportunity to be more than just what they are expected to be.