High school students across Fairfax County will have the opportunity to put a creative twist on their computer talents this spring as they take part in the Council for the Arts of Herndon’s ninth annual SAIC Technology and the Arts Competition. The innovative program challenges students in all Fairfax and Arlington County high schools to create works of animation, digital art, digital music and digital photography, blending technology and artistry into one cutting-edge masterpiece.
The Technology and the Arts program emerged from a recognized need to offer computer savvy teens a way to showcase their abilities in an artistic format, and the response to the program has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The changing technologies artists use to capture what they see in order to express and communicate—hammer and chisel, paint brush, printing press, film, digital image—have helped drive human progress,” explains Douglas Koelemay, vice president of Community Relations at SAIC in Tysons. “We’ve steadily grown our collaboration with the Council for the Arts to focus attention on the vision and skills of these young artists, but also to signal that technology companies need imagination, creative skills and visual representation of complex information going forward.”
Students submit entries at their schools, and teachers are tasked with selecting which works will be entered into the contest. Works are judged by professionals and experts in the field and monetary awards, including a top prize of $1,000, will be given for first place through honorable mention in each category. Judges in previous years have included Charlotte Rinderknecht, president, and Pam Darley, artistic and technical director of Studio Kinate; Professor Harold Linton, chair, Department of Art and Visual Technology, George Mason University; Scott Zetlan, professional photographer, Scott Zetlan Images; and Lee Love, photographer, of Lee Love Photography and Laura Readyoff of The Music Loft.
Winners will be honored May 20 at the SAIC Conference Center at 1710 SAIC Drive, McLean, from 7-9 p.m. The public is invited to attend the awards ceremony and view competition entries.