MONROE — Northside Elementary School student Layla Sayles is the proud winner of Artsonia’s Artist of the Week contest, a voting competition held on Artsonia.com, the world’s largest collection of student art portfolios exhibiting over 100 million pieces of student art.
Sayles received more than 300 online votes for her winning art a digital mosaic depicting a dog.
“My favorite animal is a dog, so I thought if I can make a dog, I think it will look good,” Sayles said, discussing her winning artwork.
When asked how she felt when she found out she won Artist of the Week, Sayles said, “Shocked. I was also very happy.”
Sayles’ teacher, Briana Cleary has been teaching art for more than 18 years. “I love teaching a variety of mediums to my students, so they are able to find what they are most passionate about,” Cleary said.
Cleary is one of the thousands of art teachers who use Artsonia to showcase their student art, manage the art room, crowdsource lesson plans, and fundraise for their classrooms. Artsonia lets family and friends of student artists create and purchase custom keepsakes from the student art and then gives back 20 percent of all revenue to the local art classroom.
“Artsonia has allowed me expand my classroom to the families in my school, my local community as well as network with other schools in different states and countries,” Cleary said. “I most enjoy students having a digital portfolio that they can keep forever.”
Artsonia developed Artist of the Week 15 years ago to encourage teachers to submit student artwork and engage the school and community to vote on and recognize students for their creative 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 open to the public for several days before the winner is announced.
“When a student is recognized for their artistic achievements, I love to see their pride in their work. Students are able to see that hard work pays off,” Cleary said.
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.
