Yesterday was the Northern Virginia PTA Reflections deadline. In other words, it was the day when Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax’s top entries in the annual PTA preK-12 student art contest to be advanced to the Northern Virginia contest to compete at the District level.
The PTA Reflections contest is multi-tiered. A student enters the contest at his or her individual school, creating art that interprets a theme. For 2019-20, the theme is “Look Within.” The top winners from each school then move on to the city or county contest, and the top winners from that level advance to the Northern Virginia District contest, which is the contest I run. When we complete our judging, NoVa’s best entries will compete at the state level. And yes, each state’s 1st Place winners go to National.
The contest has divisions for different age groups and one for special-needs students, and students can enter work in any or all of six arts categories: Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Music Composition, Photography, and Visual Arts.
I spent all day yesterday at the Fairfax school system’s Gatehouse Administrative Center, accepting the entries, getting them sorted, and making sure everything was complete. Working with Northern Virginia PTA District Director Debbie Kilpatrick and the Reflections chairs from the three PTA Councils (Margaret McLaughlin for Alexandria, April Maddox for Arlington, and Denise Bolton for Fairfax), I received terrific artwork from some of Northern Virginia’s most talented students. And now the judging phase has begun. Here are some of Debbie’s photos from yesterday’s activities.
And did I mention that there were cupcakes? And pastries. And scottish shortbread….
In later blog entries, we’ll talk about the amazing student art.
The Petrini Page 