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Talented Student Artists Earn Awards

Photo by CHERYL KUCK

Blake High School teachers Molly Dressel on the left and Lucy Kirk on the right pose with 11th Congressional District student art competition winner Stephano Galarza at Hillsborough Community College's Dale Mabry Campus in Tampa Feb. 28. Galarza's oil-on-canvas painting, “Past,” will hang in the Florida state capitol building in Tallahassee, and the artist also will participate in the 2009 Congressional Art Competition in Washington, D.C.

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By CHERYL KUCK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 25, 2009

As the last frost warning leaves our state, high school arts programs are entering the spring season of ultimate rewards.

Yearlong efforts of students and teachers come to fruition with their second major scholarship event, following on the heels of the Florida State Fair.

Hillsborough Community College's Dale Mabry Campus, in conjunction with the Tampa Museum of Art, presented a major scholarship event Feb. 28, enabling Hillsborough County high school art students to go on to compete in the prestigious annual Next Generation and 11th Congressional District high school exhibition competitions.

Students in the congressional competition vie for scholarship money and national recognition. Next Generation artists and teachers receive cash honorariums benefiting the students and their inspiring instructors.

Teachers' honorariums are funded by the Hillsborough County Arts Council and given to the winning teachers' schools to help pay for art supplies.

Top Next Generation competition winners also are afforded opportunities to present their works at the Gasparilla Arts Festival in Tampa.

The 2009 11th Congressional Choice Award was given to 11th-grade Blake Magnet High School student Stephano Espinoza Garlaza for his oil-on-canvas artwork titled "Past." He has been a consistent winner of major high school competitions since arriving in America from his native Ecuador.

In 2008, his copperplate etching received a first-place award in the Greater Federation of Women's Clubs-Brandon Service League's annual art show.

"We came to this country primarily in the hope of furthering his art career and allowing him greater opportunities to fruitfully use his talent," said his mother, Sonia Garlaza.

They first moved to the Dover area but recently moved to Tampa to be closer to Blake High.

Stephano Garlaza's artwork will be on display in the Florida state capitol in Tallahassee for a year. He also will participate in the 2009 Congressional Art Competition in Washington, with complimentary transportation and hotel accommodations.

His congressional award makes Garlaza eligible for scholarships from Georgia's Savannah College of Art and Design and the University of Tampa.

His award also gives his art teachers at Blake, Lucy Kirk and Molly Dressel, $300 from the Arts Council of Hillsborough County for use toward programming and classroom supplies.

"My teachers are great mentors," he said. "I'm putting in a lot of hours and am grateful that last year Ms. Dressel helped me receive an apprenticeship with a printmaker."

The Next Generation Tampa Museum of Art Choice Award was given to 11th-grade Freedom High School student Perri Rothenberg for her photography work titled "Albino." The artist and her art teacher, Bill Renninger, each received $250 and a two-year household membership to the Tampa Museum of Art.

The Next Generation Tampa Museum of Art First Place and Best of Photography Award was presented by museum board Chairman Raymond Ifert to Matthew Young of Brandon for his complex photographic integration in a work titled "Pressure."

The artist's mother, Joan Young, said, "My son was discovered by his Buckhorn Elementary School art teacher, Elaine Holmes, in the third grade. She inspired him and gave him the confidence to use his talent. He always gives her credit whenever he receives an award."

Since high school, the photographic arts specialist who mentors Young has been Linda Galgani.

She has encouraged him to enter competitions and exhibits - including the 2009 Hillsborough County Surrealism Exhibition at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg and the 2008 and 2009 Greater Federation of Women's Clubs-Brandon Service League contests.

Hillsborough Community College also awarded Young first place and a $400 scholarship at the college's 2009 Master Certification Show. Among many other prestigious awards he received were first place at the 13th Judicial Circuit's Annual Law Day Competition for his work on the 2008 cover of the organization's annual report.

Cheryl Kuck is a media member of the Greater Brandon Arts Council. She can be reached at wkuck@tampabay.rr.com.

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