Alaska recipients of Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were honored at a reception on Saturday, Feb. 13, at the UAA/APU Consortium Library. The long-running national awards program is sponsored by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and is organized in Alaska by Young Emerging Artists, Alaska Inc.
Gold Key recipients in the art category included: Ashley Courter, Julia Ditto, Tierney Goan, Kacy Grundhauser, Deanna Kendall, Margaret May, Savanah Owen, Carrie Steele and Emma Thomas. Silver Key recipients were Addie Willsrud, Emma Ulrich, Danielle Thomas, Cierra Reynolds, Dru Keizer, Essence Jones, Candace Hubble, Megan Ellis, Elise Driver, Merryn Daniel, Hannah Chowaniec, and Flurina Boslough. Brian Britt, Maya Daniel, Cadence Moffitt and Reeve Swan each received both Gold and Silver Key awards in the competition, which allows multiple entries.
Britt, Grundhauser, Swan and Emma Thomas all had work selected as American Visions submissions, which means they will be sent to national competition.
In the writing category, Anna Lance received three Gold and one Silver Key. Last year she went on to be named one of five National Student Poets in the competition, selected from 20,000 submissions. Silver Key winners included Margie Argones, Ally Carney, Nicolas Delvalle, Heather Johnson, Rachel Lowrance, Judy Park and Wil Troxel.
Several recipients of honorable mentions were also honored at the weekend event. Nationally, more than 300,000 original student works are submitted for Scholastic Art & Writing Awards every year.
Theater in the valley
Triumvirate Theater Group will present "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Glenn Massay Theater on the campus of Mat-Su College. A big cast and crew of volunteers has been busily working on the singing, choreography, light and stage design for several weeks. Rodger Sorensen directs. Performances will take place at 7 p.m. Thurs.-Saturday through Feb. 26 with a 1 p.m. matinee at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 27. Tickets are $25, available at glennmassaytheater.com.
Valley Performing Arts is staging "Anne of Avonlea," a sequel to "Anne of Green Gables," as part of its 40th season. Showtimes are 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through March 13.
Aleutian life, circa 1875
The UAA bookstore will present Alaska historian J. Pennelope Goforth, who will speak on the contents of six Alaska Commercial Company ledgers from the 1800s that she discovered in a basement in Washington. The volumes contain a lot of detail about daily life in the Aleutian Islands and the price of a pound of coffee in 1875. They're considered important since a lot of ACC records went up in smoke following the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Goforth speaks at 5 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 22, in the UAA/APU Consortium Library, room 307.
Looking ahead, the bookstore will celebrate the return to their Student Union Building quarters "with new chairs, new carpet, new lights (and) new ideas for open minds" at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 1. Dispatch News columnist Charles Wohlforth, former ADN reporter Debra McKinney and Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan will talk about the challenges of co-writing someone else's story in a panel discussion titled "Writing Other People's Memoirs."
Both events are free and there's even free parking in the Library Lot, Library NE Lot and the East garage for Goforth's talk and in the South Lot, the West Campus Central Lot (behind Rasmuson Hall), the Sports Lot and the Sports NW Lot for the panel discussion on March 1.
Wood wizards
Artistry in Wood, the 12th annual woodworking competition and exhibition presented by Alaska Creative Woodworkers Association, is looking for volunteers to help set up the show at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 21. If you can't cut a right angle with a miter box, here's a good opportunity to get tips from folks who can. Entries will be accepted from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday.
The exhibit is displayed for the public Feb. 24-March 8 in the Northway Mall, which is also where volunteers and people wanting to submit work should go. It invariably shows off some astonishing and beautiful pieces of the woodworker's art.
Back in town
Longtime Alaska artist Kay Marshall is back in town. In her many years in Anchorage she was known as an excellent art teacher as well as artist, so we're pleased to report that she is giving classes at the Blue.Hollomon Gallery, Arctic Blvd. and 36th Ave. Classes start at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and at 11 a.m. on Saturdays. More information can be had by calling 563-2787.
Grammy winners coming in May
It's not always easy to find an Alaska connection in the annual list of Grammy Awards. But we had to look. Among the recipients of the recently-announced 2016 awards are the husband-wife team of Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, whose self-titled CD took the prize for Best Folk Album. The Anchorage Concert Association is bringing them up to Anchorage for a performance on May 15.