Cranbrook Student Wins National Art Award

Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School student Peyton North, class of ’11, won the prestigious National American Visions Medal in The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition.

North’s work, “Pencil Skirt (Polar),” was selected from over 150,000 works submitted nationwide. After placing in the top five at the regional level, North’s work was reviewed by panels of professional jurors in New York, who then selected the 1,000 national award recipients.

“Peyton is an ideal art student,” says Upper School Weaving Instructor Lynn Bennett-Carpenter. “She is curious, ready to take on challenges, and beautifully attends to every detail of her projects down to the final stitch.”

North looks to a variety of resources for inspiration to her projects: nature, travel, science, and other textile traditions. For her “Pencil Skirt (Polar),” she was inspired by textiles that were made in Burkina Faso, Africa, by weavers of the Namtenga Soundo Babisi, who are the sister weaving studio to the Kingswood Weaving Studio at the Upper School.

“‘Pencil Skirt (Polar)’ is hand-woven in a twill pattern with a striped and hand-painted warp that is artfully sewn together into a sleek design,” says Bennett-Carpenter. “Peyton’s skirt sheds a new light on using handwoven textiles in contemporary fashion, and this is why she won such a prestigious honor.”

Founded in 1923, The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the nation’s largest, longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teenagers in grades 7 through 12. Each year, ambitious students throughout the United States, Canada, and American schools abroad submit more than 150,000 works of art and writing to be evaluated by creative professionals, educators, and scholars. The Southeastern Michigan Region of The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is sponsored by the College of Creative Studies and is supported by volunteer art teachers in Wayne and Oakland Counties.