Glacier Ridge Student Wins Online Art Competition

CRYSTAL LAKE, IL -- Glacier Ridge student Sloane Orzehoskie won Artsonia’s Artist of the Week contest, a voting competition held on Artsonia.com. Artisonia.com is the world's largest online student art museum and exhibits more than 65 million pieces of student art. Orzehoskie recently received more than a thousand online votes for her winning artwork.

“Painting is fun. Sometimes I think of something on my own to make, but other times I try to make something similar to what I see," she said. Orzehoskie has an art room at home and enjoys painting on canvases and pottery and doing crafts, according to a news release.

Susan Brazao, Glacier Ridge art teacher, is in her seventh year as an art instructor.

She is one of thousands of art teachers from over 100 countries around the world who use Artsonia to showcase their student art, crowdsource lesson plans and help fundraise for their classrooms. Artsonia lets family and friends of student artists create and purchase organic keepsakes from the student art, and then gives back 20 percent of all revenue to the local art classroom.

“Artsonia has been a wonderful tool for parents, students, and teachers to showcase and view student artwork,” Brazao said. “I am so proud of Sloane and the well-deserved recognition she received.”

Artsonia developed Artist of the Week ten years ago as a way to encourage teachers to submit student artwork and engage the school and community to vote on and recognize students for their 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 then open to the public for several days before the winner is announced.

Blick Art Materials generously 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.”

For more information, visit artsonia.com.