“Inside Sunday” (mixed media by Daniel Zeballos ’18) Photo courtesy of Mercersburg Academy
Mercersburg Academy’s Daniel Zeballos ’18 has been selected to receive a National Gold Medal in the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, which is the nation’s longest-running recognition for creative teens in grades 7-12. Zeballos earned the honor, which is bestowed upon less than 1 percent of the more than 350,000 submissions in the program, for his mixed-media piece “Inside Sunday.”
The piece by Zeballos, of Great Falls, had received a Gold Key in the 2018 South Central Pennsylvania Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, which were announced in January. Seven Mercersburg students earned a total of 15 Gold Key, Silver Key, or Honorable Mention awards in that competition, with Gold Key award winners advancing to compete at the national level.
As a Gold Medal winner, Zeballos will be invited to attend the national award ceremony June 7 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Some past medal recipients have included Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Plath, and Andy Warhol.
Zeballos’ piece will be on exhibit alongside other award-winning works this summer at two New York City locations: Parsons School of Design at The New School and at Pratt Institute’s Pratt Manhattan Gallery.
Zeballos has studied at Mercersburg with fine-arts faculty members Sydney Caretti and Kristen Pixler.
More information about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (which were established in 1923) is available at www.artandwriting.org.