Curated by Anthony Madonna and Casey Dalene
Photos: Jess Dalene
Student Art Festival 2021: Past-Present-Future
The Guild Hall Student Art Festival (SAF) is a beloved tradition that encourages and showcases the artistic achievement and imagination of students, Kindergarten to Grade 12, on the South Fork of Long Island.
As a celebration of both Guild Hall’s 90th Anniversary, and the centennial of the Village of East Hampton, the Student Art Festival 2021: PAST-PRESENT-FUTURE looked to both our shared past and an imagined future. Through the practice of art and design, ranging from imagery of natural growth and metamorphosis to Futurism and Science-Fiction, students across the East-End collectively produced an exhibit that reflects our past, acknowledges and celebrates our present, and imagines a changed and hopeful future.
This festival began with a free public opening of the exhibition, a series of after-school workshops, and a High School Awards Ceremony adjudicated by artist, Clifford Ross.
High School Awards Ceremony
The 2021 Awards are decided and given by celebrated artist and Guild Hall Academy of the Arts member, Clifford Ross. Ross has awarded 30 students from East Hampton High School and the Ross School within traditional categories from Best Drawing to Best Collaboration to Best Mixed Media, and honors unique to this year’s Festival, including Best Architectural Project, and the Social Responsibility Award.
This year the Awards Ceremony takes the form of a prerecorded video. In late January, Ross met with Guild Hall’s Curatorial Assistant/Lewis B. Cullman Associate for Museum Education, Casey Dalene, to share his thoughts on the Festival as a whole,and to offer individual congratulations to each awarded artist. This prerecorded awards ceremony is available for free streaming on our website and YouTube page through end of the Student Art Festival.