Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

The Belin-Blank Center is proud to serve as the Iowa and Midwest Region-at-Large Affiliate for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program. As Affiliate for these regions, we accept art and writing submissions, judge those submissions, hold an awards ceremony recognizing regional winners, and provide summer programming for talented young artists and writers.

About the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program is the nation's longest-running, largest, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens. For the past 100 years, the Awards have recognized and encouraged artists and writers such as Sylvia Plath, Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Tom Otterness, and Zac Posen, among countless others.

Students who earn Honorable Mention, Silver, or Gold Key Awards in either Art or Writing in the Iowa or Midwest Regions will be recognized at the Scholastic Celebration, and all participants are invited. The Celebration also recognizes the teachers who are listed on the submission forms of student pieces. In all, over 1000 students and almost 500 teachers are invited to attend the event.

Gold Key works automatically advance to national judging. National awards will be announced at artandwriting.org.

Timeline

Submissions open: October 1, 2025
Submissions close: December 8, 2025
Iowa and Midwest Regional Celebration: March 7, 2026
National awards announced: March 25, 2026

Past Award Winners

How to Apply

Every year, we accept and judge submissions to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards from Iowa and the Midwest Region-at-Large.

To submit your work, you will first need to visit the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards website. There, you will find important dates and instructions for signing up to participate in the competition.