ROCKVILLE, MD – Today, Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) announced the winner and runners-up of Maryland’s Eighth District 2024 Congressional Art Competition and launched a virtual gallery showcasing all entries received. This year’s winner is Jean-Luc Chretien of Kensington, a student at the Sidwell Friends School. Jean-Luc's piece, Caged, pictured below, will hang in the U.S. Capitol Building for one year alongside winning art pieces from congressional districts across the nation.
The winning entry and a larger pool of honorees are currently under exhibition at local arts center VisArts through Sunday, May 12, 2024. All entries to the competition can also be viewed in Rep. Raskin’s 2024 virtual gallery. More than 150 students entered the competition this year.
Caged, by Sidwell Friends School student Jean-Luc Chretien of Kensington, Maryland
Rendered with colored pencil and alcohol marker
“Congratulations to Jean-Luc Chretien for creating Caged, a spellbinding and hauntingly beautiful piece of surrealist art and the winning entry in my Eighth District Congressional Art Competition,” said Rep. Raskin. “Every year, high school students across the Eighth District dazzle me and our community with their boundless creativity and artistic prowess, and the 2024 competition was no exception.”
Rep. Raskin continued, “I am grateful to Rockville arts center VisArts for lending their support to my art competition for the 8th year in a row, from administering our online submission portal to hosting our in-person gallery. I’m also thankful to our incomparable judges, each one a prodigious talent in their own right, for lending their expertise and mentorship to young Eighth District artists.”
To see VisArts’ hours to visit the in-person gallery, click here.
The 2024 runner-up winners in the Eighth District Congressional Art Competition include: Jada Cho, Jonathan Shan, Anastasia Kondratenko, Sahana Thyagarajan, Ella Spirtas, Jennifer Wan, Kia Brazhnikova, Zoe Kim, Amie Singhateh, Kangyi Zhou, Oliver Bourne, Annalyn Chao, Zihan Zhou, Katherine Xue, Elizabeth Zhao, Katie Wen, Nico Borrelli, Molly Tifford, Leela Kenwood, Alanna Sidlowski, Niambi Mills, and William Ma.
Each spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors the Congressional Art Competition to recognize and encourage artistic talent in the nation and in each congressional district. Now in its 42nd year, more than 650,000 high school students have participated since the competition’s inception in 1982.
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