Visual Arts students at UNCSA win multiple Mid-Carolina Scholastic Art Awards

Eighteen high school students at UNCSA have won a collective 52 awards in the 2026 Mid-Carolina Scholastic Art Awards. The students in the High School Visual Arts Program in the School of Design and Production collected 20 Gold Keys, 18 Silver Keys and 14 honorable mentions.

Serving students and educators from central North and South Carolina, the Mid-Carolina Scholastic Art Awards are hosted by the College of Arts + Architecture at UNC Charlotte. The ceremony for regional Gold and Silver Key awards will be held virtually on Feb. 14, 2026. 

The winning artwork will be on display starting March 1 through April 12, at the Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina. Visitors will have the opportunity to see the Gold and Silver Key winners in person and admission will be free.

The national awards will be announced in March and the winners’ work displayed in New York City in June.

Ava Moore, Silver Key for Conceptual, Installation & Participatory Art, “The Lovers” / Photo: UNCSA

“We are proud of our students’ results in this year’s Scholastic Art Awards,” said  Director of Visual Arts Will Taylor, a professor of drawing and Assistant Dean in the UNCSA School of Design and Production. “These awards reflect the standard our students pursue and the discipline behind the work, from first concept through final completion.”

Submissions are evaluated in numerous categories, including design, digital art, mixed media, painting, sculpture, and ceramics and glass. The entries are classified according to media, then sorted by grade level. Panels of regional jurors, made up of museum curators, college and university professors, professional artists, and veteran K-12 art teachers evaluate the work in a blind judging process. 

UNCSA Visual Arts students study under faculty members Kaitlin Botts, Teresa Cervantes and Will Taylor.

Winners include:

Dakota Artimisi, Pfafftown, North Carolina
Silver Key for Photography, “Home”

Kate Baughman, Charlotte, North Carolina
Gold Key for Drawing, “I Got Mine”
Gold Key for Photography, “Do I Look Like ---?”
Honorable Mention for Sculpture, “Build a World Together”

Laila Cramer, Kernersville, North Carolina
Honorable Mention for Digital Painting, Drawing & Collage, “Bump That!”

Margot Eyssen, Charlotte, North Carolina
Silver Key for Fashion, “Floral Serenity”
Honorable Mention for Illustration, “Morning Light”

Emma Fox, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Gold Key for Photography, “Is there still time?”
Silver Key for Drawing, “Following Souls”
Silver Key for Photography, “Just a While Longer”
Silver Key for Sculpture, “The Test of a Late Expedition by The ‘Hastings’ Party, and Later Cult of Hastings’s Wife”
Honorable Mention for Painting, “Be still, Little One”

Fox was also named an American Visions Award nominee.

Capper Gage, Thomasville, North Carolina
Gold Key for Illustration, “Home of the Fish Girl”
Gold Key for Illustration, “Beloved Babies”

Mars George, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Honorable Mention for Drawing, “Flowers and Jars”

Nalayah Henderson, Fayetteville, North Carolina
Honorable Mention for Drawing, “Figment”

Cara Kwon, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Gold Key for Mixed Media, “Rotted Illusion”
Honorable Mention for Drawing, “Deer Skull Still Life”

William Larrabee, Pfafftown, North Carolina
Gold Key for Fashion, “Florid”
Silver Key for Sculpture, “Devout Atrocity”
Honorable Mention for Painting, “Domain of Decay”

Larissa Liu, Waxhaw, North Carolina
Honorable Mention for Film & Animation, “(C)RUSH HOUR”

Ava Moore, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Silver Key for Conceptual, Installation & Participatory Art, “The Lovers”
Silver Key for Drawing, “Babyface”
Silver Key for Painting, “It’s His Fault”
Honorable Mention for Conceptual, Installation & Participatory Art, “Myiasis”

Miles Parrott-Streeck, Asheville, North Carolina
Gold Key for Drawing, “Memory Over Memory”
Gold Key for Drawing, “What the Body Leaves Behind”
Gold Key for Photography, “Spin Cycle Séance”
Silver Key for Conceptual, Installation & Participatory Art, “Sowing Lightning”
Honorable Mention for Photography, “:)”
Honorable Mention for Sculpture, “Bridge”

Caroline Roth, Asheville, North Carolina
Gold Key for Drawing, “Spoiling Triptych”
Silver Key for Drawing, “Deathbed Fantasia”
Silver Key for Fashion, “Apocalyptic Princess”
Silver Key for Illustration, “Anatomic Utopia: An Empirical Cycle in Clockwise Rotation”
Silver Key for Painting, “Revolution, Baby!”

Zachary Rose, Asheville, North Carolina
Gold Key for Mixed Media, “Fire and paint”
Gold Key for Mixed Media, “Ephemeral”

Sage Roscoe, Asheville, North Carolina
Gold Key for Drawing, “Octopus and Pearls”

Ruby Seiler, Asheville, North Carolina
Gold Key for Drawing, “Bucranium Geometry”
Gold Key for Photography, “Inner Source”
Silver Key for Painting, “Album Cover Commission for LUCI, the musical by Mark Kelso”
Silver Key for Photography, “Slow Service”
Silver Key for Photography, “Lichen Desert”
Honorable Mention for Conceptual, Installation & Participatory Art, “Impact, commissioned mural for MPAC 360 Boxing and Wrestling”

Seiler also received an Adam’s Billboard Award.

Audrey Song, Cary, North Carolina
Gold Key for Portfolio Category (Art), “Archive of a Half-Remembered Homeland”
Honorable Mention for Photography, “Absolution of The Self”

Langlang Ye, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Gold Key for Ceramics & Glass, “Dancing Waves”
Gold Key for Ceramics & Glass, “Do You Remember?”
Gold Key for Ceramics & Glass, “A Pocket of Untouched Land”
Silver Key for Painting, “Always With You”

Ye was also named an American Visions Award nominee and received the Mint Award, Clayworks Award and an Adam’s Billboard Award.

Ava Moore, Silver Key for Drawing, “Babyface” / Photo: UNCSA

About the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

The nation's longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were founded in 1923. Notable winners have included artist Andy Warhol, sculptor Luis Jiménez, photographer Richard Avedon, artist Kay WalkingStick, author Stephen King and director Ken Burns.

About the UNCSA Visual Arts Program 

The UNCSA Visual Arts Program enrolls high school juniors and seniors who commit to a rigorous course of study in design, drawing, sculpture and art history. Graduates of the program have continued to pursue their interest in the fine arts at universities such as Virginia Commonwealth, Kansas City Art Institute, Maryland Institute College of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ringling College of Art and Design, School of the Museum of Fine Art - Boston and College for Creative Studies. Visual Arts alumni have enjoyed successful careers in photography, graphic design, painting, animation, sculpture, installation art, makeup artistry and arts education.

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