National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of First Annual Teen Portrait Competition

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery announces the winners of the first annual Teen Portrait Competition. McNeel Mann (14, Alaska) and Allen Chiu (17, Calif.) have been selected as the grand-prize winners, and their photographs will be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in the spring of 2013. The 20 honorable-mention photographs will be featured in an online exhibition at npgteenportrait.org.

One grand-prize winner and 10 honorable mentions were chosen from each age category; ages 13-15 and ages 16-17. Honorable-mention winners are: Lexi Bernstein (16, Iowa), Spencer Bodian (16, Md.), Alicia Carter (16, Ohio), Hali Cobb (15, Ohio),Patience Davis (17, Va.),Samantha Deur (16, Va.), Katelyn Gutowski (15, Calif.), Haley Harrington (17, Va.), AnJenae Harris (14, Germany), Riley Hart (14, D.C.), Donae Herd (15, Ohio), Emily Joyce (16, Md.), Katherine Kelly (16, Va.), Ciara Lewis (16, Ohio), Raegan Milligan (14, Germany), Sophie Schwartz (17, Ohio), Mariama Taifa-Seitu (18, D.C.), Seth Walters (14, Germany), Molly Weiner (15, D.C.) and Luke Wunsch-Edwards (16, Mass.).

Local teenagers designed the competition for their peers under the supervision of the museum’s education department. The teenagers, ages 13 to 17, worked on planning, creating and marketing the competition. The competition was designed to introduce teenagers to the concept of representing identity through portraiture. More than 300 teens entered the competition.

Finalists were selected by the Teen Design Team, which was assisted by Dorothy Moss assistant curator of paintings at the National Portrait Gallery and Andrea Dixon, assistant exhibitions director from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Additional prizes include a compact system camera for the first-place winners and gift cards for honorable mentions.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the history of America through the individuals who have shaped its culture. Through the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists whose lives tell the American story.

The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at Eighth and F streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Website: npg.si.edu. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000.

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