Contest Winner Awarded $10,000 Scholarship

The recent partnership of the Eudora Welty Foundation and the Eudora Welty House with the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers has produced a national winner of the 2010 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Jackson Preparatory School senior Alexandra Franklin is one of only fifteen graduating seniors from across the country to win a $10,000 scholarship for her submission to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Franklin’s portfolio received a gold medal in the general writing category.

Since 2008 the foundation has been the Alliance’s Mississippi Writing Region affiliate for the writing competition. The Eudora Welty House administers the program, which is currently offered to junior high and high school students in Hinds, Rankin, and Madison counties.

“The Alliance’s mission to identify and develop young artists and writers is a perfect fit for us because when Eudora Welty left her house to the state it was with the understanding that it would be used to encourage writers and artists as she did during her life with Reynolds Price and Elizabeth Spencer,” said Meemie Jackson, director of education at the Eudora Welty House.

This year’s regional awards ceremony was held on Sunday, April 18 at the Jackson Convention Complex. Holmes Adams, Eudora Welty Foundation president, represented the foundation at the ceremony. On June 9, the Alliance will honor the national winners at a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

The Eudora Welty Foundation and the Mississippi Museum of Art work to connect students and teachers with the awards and to organize the local competition and exhibit students’ work. Each year, the Alliance receives thousands of works of art and writing, submitted through regional affiliate programs across the nation for consideration in over 30 categories. The submissions are evaluated locally and nationally by panels of jurors comprising renowned artists, authors, educators and arts professionals.

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