Middle School Student Wins First Place at American Kennel Club Art Contest

“I enjoy drawing artistic and creative artwork that shows some meaning,” Bea said. “When I heard about this opportunity with the AKC National Art Contest from a friend, I knew I had to give it a shot.”

This year’s AKC National Art Contest encouraged young artists to celebrate their love of dogs through creative expression and invited youth aged five to eighteen to submit artwork inspired by the theme “dog shows.”

“They told us that we had to make a dog show, and when I think of shows, I think of podiums— one, two, and three,” Bea explained. “And my aunt’s dog is a really poofy, white dog, so I drew one because I like poofy dogs. And I drew a brown Lab, because I know a lot of Labs. And then I drew a curly-haired dog, because I wanted to make dogs with different textures of hair.”

Bea’s piece, Top Dogs, depicts a group of dogs of different breeds on the first, second, and third-place podiums, wearing medals at a dog show. As a first-place winner herself, she was awarded a fifty-dollar gift card, and her prized work is now on display at the Museum of the Dog in New York City for dog and art lovers alike to admire. Bea’s mother, Bush Director of College Counseling and Student Success, Melissa Lanctot, and Bea’s grandmother met up in NYC to visit the Museum of the Dog and see Bea’s physical piece and celebrate her success. See Bea’s piece Top Dogs here.

At The Bush School, students have the opportunity to express themselves creatively through different art forms. Through the Bush Arts program, students are exposed to a wide range of visual, musical, and performing arts courses, allowing them to foster creativity, courage, and imagination from Kindergarten to Twelfth Grade.

“Something that helped me find inspiration for my drawing was nature, and visualizing what an actual dog show would look like,” Bea said. “I made a few symbols resembling flowers because they made me feel a connection to the world. I felt really focused, excited, happy, and lots of other feelings at once when making this.”