By Ella Davis
Staff Writer
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District (MBUSD) Parent Teacher Association (PTA) announced the winners of the Manhattan Beach Reflections Art Contest and held a virtual acknowledgment on Jan. 21 to acknowledge the winners.
The Reflections Art Contest invited students of all grades to embrace their creativity through various art forms, including painting, music composition, drawing, photography, visual arts, film production and works of literature. The winners of the 2020 PTA Art Reflections Contest were senior Jack Kwon, senior Michelle Rembert, senior Travers Tobis, freshman Katherine Jester and senior Ethan Nahlinder. The winners received an Award of Excellence and will advance to the next level of the competition. Junior Aiden Silver, freshman Ella Luthro and junior Charlotte Kwon also received the Award of Merit for their various pieces.
“I think the Reflections Art Contest is a fun activity to do every year,” Jack Kwon said. “It’s nice to embrace the arts and be able to create something that’s unique to me.”
This year, the theme of the contest was “I Matter Because…” According to the National PTA website, this theme took on a whole new meaning after the events of the Black Lives Matter movement and hoped to broadcast the voices of students of color through their art. Costa students submitted a piece of art responding to the prompt using their own artistic voice.
“I chose to take a picture of my sister holding my grandma’s hand,” Jester said. “I titled it ‘I Matter Because My Family Loves Me.’”
In this contest, students had the freedom to submit anything from a musical piece to a screenplay. Through their different interests and strengths, students with numerous different talents are encouraged to share their artistic perspectives with the community.
“I wrote [a] song because music has always been an important part of my life, and I wanted to show my love through my song. The song included piano, cello and voice,” Kwon said. “I’ve been playing instruments since I was six years old, and it’s hard to picture a life without music.”
In a year where the world has been struck by a pandemic and major world issues are on the rise, the PTA Art Reflections Contest worked to support the creative minds and togetherness of our community.
“From being quarantined with my family during the pandemic, I have been able to grow so much closer to them.” Jester said. “The theme of the art contest caused me to reflect on how grateful I am for my family and all the people that I am so fortunate to know.”
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