The $3,000 High School Best in Show prize was awarded to Lauren Kim, an 11th grade student at Horace Mann School in Bronx, New York. Lauren’s relief sculpture entitled Vivid Resilience—which she created with clay and acrylic paint on a wood panel—honors civil rights activist and teacher, Clara Luper. “The outlawing of segregation in 1964 was a collective, momentous effort that largely came into being through the persistent action of grassroots organizations, and persevering will of the people,” reads Lauren’s impact statement. “Especially as a student who loves history, art, and culture, I am constantly reminded that in order to coexist, we must always take our time to learn about the people. Who are the people who represent this beautiful art and culture? Who are the faces behind this historical movement? Humans are social, empathetic beings—something which Luper recognized and sought to communicate to others.”
Winning the $2,000 High School Second Place prize was Katelyn Lowe, a 12th grade student at George Washington High School in Charleston, West Virginia. Her acrylic painting, An Artist’s Modernization of American Indian Art, features meticulously rendered recreations of artworks by Oscar Howe, a Yanktonai Dakota modernist painter. “I believe Oscar Howe was an artist of great spirit,” Katelyn writes in her impact statement. “It was his desire for Indian culture to live forever through art.” Her artwork is a reflective tribute to Howe’s powerful artistic legacy. Katelyn is a returning ARTEFFECT awardee, as her artwork, A Woman Ahead of Her Time,won High School Best in Show in the 2024 ARTEFFECT Competition.
Read all Impact Statements
2025 Winners and Finalists
Congratulations to all the 2025 Awardees! The Impact Statements for the 2025 winners and finalists are now posted for each project on the ARTEFFECT Website. Read the Winners and Finalists to read about the young artists’ inspiration in choosing their Unsung Heroes as a roles models, and their creative process and interpretation.
Meet our featured Ambassador in Action Sudi Memarzadeh, Visual Art Teacher at Del Lago Academy in Escondido, CA.
Each ARTEFFECT Ambassador culminates their online fellowship with a capstone project that brings the inspiring stories of the LMC Unsung Heroes into their classrooms and communities. As we conclude this year’s fellowship, Sudi shared a little bit about her capstone project. Here is an excerpt from her narrative:
“The most meaningful part has been witnessing students realize that their art can speak to real-world issues and celebrate individuals who often go unrecognized.”
The ARTEFFECT Team joined Sudi and her students for an exciting virtual field trip earlier in the year. Thank you to Sudi and the students at Del Lago Academy for your creativity and inspiring exhibition of ARTEFFECT projects!
Congratulations to Sudi for sponsoring a 2025 Finalist, Mary Ann Bickerdyke by Sienna DePonte, and a 2025 Certificate of Excellence winner, Lily Manoocheri Farr and her project The Life of Mary Bickerdyke. Both these projects focused on Unsung Hero Mary Bickerdyke.
