CHHS student artists win awards

Heights High junior Hannah Smith's charcoal drawing won a Gold Key award in the Cuyahoga County Scholastic Art Contest.

Four Cleveland Heights High School juniors have won awards in two separate art competitions.

Hannah Smith received a Gold Key award for her charcoal drawing and Nih’jel Jones received an Honorable Mention for his coiled ceramic vessel in the 2015 Cuyahoga County Scholastic Art Competition. The local competition is part of the National Scholastic Art Competition. Smith and Jones were selected from more than 3,000 entrants from approximately 100 middle and high schools in Cuyahoga County. Each student whose work was selected for display received an award of Honorable Mention, Silver Key or Gold Key.

Gold Key award winners continue to the national competition held this spring in New York City, and are eligible for college scholarships. The awards were announced on Dec. 19 and winning pieces were on display at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Two metalsmithing students, Breeaun Canady and Michelle Posch, received Red Ribbons in the Cleveland Clinic eXpressions Art Competition. Canady created a jewelry medallion depicting lungs and including the words "Recycle Yourself" to encourage organ donation. Posch created a necklace with angel wings that represent lungs and the struggle faced by infants born with respiratory distress syndrome.

Both student artists are in Nancy Eisenberg’s metals/jewelry class, where they read the medical research reports of two high school summer interns. Both students focused on research about human lungs. The science sparked a creative process in the students that produced the metal jewelry.

“This project is way more than an art contest,” said Eisenberg. “The collaboration about real research with a student from another school makes this very special.”

The eXpessions program included students from 43 Ohio high schools who submitted more than 1,200 paintings, poems, sculptures, videos, essays and short stories. Awards were announced in December and are on display at the Global Center for Health Innovation until March 13.