Who Are We?
The Roanoke Valley Student Art Competition was initially conceived as a fundraising idea by parents of students attending a local private school in Roanoke, VA. From there, the idea blossomed as a creative outlet for budding artists not just attending one private school, but for all students in the Roanoke Valley, whether public, private, or home-schooled. An art committee was formed to begin implementation of a spring art contest. And, in the spirit of helping others, the art committee joined forces with the Rescue Mission so the competition will benefit the Rescue Mission, and their affiliated shop, 2nd Helpings, as well.
We hope to expand the competition in the coming years to create after school art programs for underprivileged youth.
2019 marked our second year and it was as successful and as fun as it was the previous year. Unfortunately the pandemic has halted plans for another competition until further notice.
Our Directors
Jennifer Lawrence
Art Competition Director
After moving to Roanoke more than 20 years ago to attend Hollins University, Jennifer graduated with a B.A. in English Literature and Studio Art. She has since gone on to become a professional artist. Her preferred medium is oil on canvas and she sells her art through local interior designers as well as stores such as Present Thyme in Towers Mall.
She is married to a local artisan, Brian Lawrence, and they have three children together.
Emily Chernick
Fundraising Coordinator and
Art Competition Co-Director
Emily is a native of Roanoke, married with four children. She has home-schooled her children for many years until she was led to Bent Mountain Christian Academy where she currently teaches middle school English and literature. She is not one to enjoy leisure time, so when she is not busy being a wife, mom, cook, chauffeur, and teacher, she enjoys volunteering at the school or with animal rescues.
Other helping hands
Volunteers
We are also very blessed to have numerous parents volunteering their valuable time to help make this art competition fun and successful for everyone involved. We want to recognize their hard work and thank them for their enormous help.
We also wish to thank the many parents who helped raise the funds for our prizes.
The Rescue Mission and 2nd Helpings
A heartfelt thanks also goes out to Tracy Altizer at the Rescue Mission and Taylor Zielke (and everyone else ) at 2nd Helpings Shop.Gallery.Cafe for their help in making this art competition a reality.
Bent Mountain Christian Academy
We also want to thank the administrators of Bent Mountain Christian Academy, Mr. Jonathan Montoya and Ms. Karen Scott, for their support of our endeavor.