Charlotte Latin School students often see their art on the walls across campus, or sometimes on a mantlepiece at home. Two places some of them will see it this spring: at the Mint Museum and on billboards overlooking Charlotte thoroughfares.

The Mid-Carolina Scholastic Art Awards honored five Charlotte Latin School students at the Regional Arts Ceremony on March 13 with extraordinary recognition for their artistic creations. These plaudits came only weeks after dozens of Latin students received awards from the prestigious Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, taking home 25% of the Gold Keys granted to students at 109 schools and art programs in North and South Carolina. 

“We have an open studio style,” said Kaila Gottschling, Visual Arts Department Chair TK-12, meaning that Latin art students are able to choose the mediums that speak to them. “Students are able to find their own voices.” The Scholastic laurels showcase how that approach succeeds when Latin artists share their work with the world.

Four Latin students will do so on a particularly large scale: they each won the Billboard Award. As that name suggests, their art will be showcased on a quartet of Adams Outdoor billboards, beginning on April 1. (The College of Arts + Architecture Scholastic site will have a map with the locations of the four billboards.)

Vikram Rao (Grade 7) won for his bold geometric painting, Triangular Figures. Moné Cary ’24 was honored for the hypnotic vista of her painting Mzansi (South Africa); Kathryn Wu ’27 for her mysterious and evocative portrait Shrouded. And Isabel Yang ’26 won for her vivid, intimate Ma Eating Bundt Cake.

“I told her that I wanted her to choose subject matter that was close to her, and color and style unique to her,” said Richard Fletcher, Upper School Art Instructor, who taught the Freshman Studio Art I class in which Isabel made the painting. “And then her figure drawing went to the next level.” 

Hope Gottschling ’24 received two separate high honors: her layered cyanotype dress “Silk Strength” received the NCAEA Award and will be featured in a 2024 issue of ByDesign, a digital publication for North Carolina arts educators. And “Threads,” a collection of her fashion designs, earned the UNCC Portfolio Award, rewarded with a guided tour, lunch, and a personal meeting with Dr. Angela Rajagopalan, the Chair of the Department of Art & Art History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

“Fashion is a mix of engineering and art,” Hope said. “I found fashion design on my own, but Latin has helped foster it. I love making art into something wearable — girlie and edgy at the same time.”

The art of all five honorees, along with their fellow Gold and Silver Key winners, is on display at the Mint Museum Uptown until April 14. (Admission is free; let the front desk know you are visiting the Scholastic exhibit.)

Mr. Fletcher pointed out that the Scholastic Awards provide not only a yardstick to measure the accomplishments of the Latin Visual Arts Department, but a useful proving ground for students. As he put it, “At the end of the day as an artist, you have to have your art out there.”