Art award winners

These Sweet Home Junior High art students won gold or silver medals in the Scholastic Art Competition, the largest art competition in the United States, with more than 300,000 art and writing entries entered this year. Pictured, from left, are Dezi Short, Marissa Kurtz, Sunhee Bitter, Terron Coppenrud, Emily Funk, Addi Ingram, Eric Seitz and Courtnie Woodard. Not pictured is Abby Stone. “It is pretty rare for middle school artists to receive either a gold or silver key; we received nine combined,” art teacher Trey Hagen said. “While we have received awards at the national level in the same competition, this is the best overall showing we’ve had in the last six years at the regional level.”