Fenimore Art Museum Announces Winners of the 2025 Young at Art Regional Youth Art Contest

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — On Saturday, April 12, teachers, families, and community members gathered at Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown to celebrate the achievements of young artists in Central New York. This year 273 teen artists from 26 regional schools participated in the museum’s annual Young at Art! Regional Youth Art Contest.

The artworks of 75 young artists were selected to comprise the exhibition, Young at Art! Timeless Tales, Vibrant Visions, on view at Fenimore Art Museum through May 7, 2025.

Gallery viewing, artmaking activities, and a live performance by the Little Delaware Youth Ensemble preceded a keynote address by Gregory Lendeck, Artistic Director of the NYS Summer School of the Arts, and the announcement of winners by Michelle Bosma, Manager of Special Programs at Fenimore Art Museum. Distinctive awards were given to Lucas Santana of Thomas Proctor High School in Utica, whose sculpture, Baba Yaga, brings the legend of the Slavic witch and fairy godmother to life. The Grand Prize Award was presented to Kirill Grechkin, homeschooled in Warren, whose drawing, The Moonlight Terror, masterfully depicts a giant octopus stirring the waves of the sea. The award for Outstanding Participation was presented to Daniel Marrone, Art Instructor at Richfield Springs Central School. First place awards were presented to Adelyn Shute, Layla Buttermann, Serafina Marotto, Kerry McNamara, Abigal Babbitt, Daniel Kehoe, Ava O’Dell, Aurora Stingel, and Emily Hartman for the best works of art in their chosen media depicting the program theme of legends.

Young at Art! is sponsored in part by Bank of Cooperstown, NYCM Insurance, the Black Family Foundation, and Stewart’s Holiday Match.

About Young at Art!

Young at Art! Regional Youth Art Contest serves young artists in grades 6-12 in Delaware, Chenango, Otsego, Herkimer, Oneida, and Madison counties. In the fall, students are invited to create works of art related to an annual theme. This year’s theme is legends. Through the academic year, artists are introduced to well-known works of art related to the theme and given art-making prompts, as staff from the Fenimore travel to classrooms and homeschooling groups. Submissions are due in the January and a panel of artists serve as judges for the contest, selecting works to comprise an exhibition and the recipients of special awards. For more information about Young at Art! and to participate next year, visit https://fenimoreartmuseum.org/youngatart25.

About Fenimore Art Museum

Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass”—in historic Cooperstown, New York, presents changing exhibitions each season. Past shows have featured artists such as Keith Haring, Ansel Adams, Banksy, M.C. Escher, and many others. The museum features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings from artists including Albert Bierstadt, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Frederic Edwin Church, Childe Hassam, Martin Johnson Heade, Robert Henri, George Inness, Eastman Johnson, Joshua Johnson, Thomas Moran, Georgia O’Keeffe, Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, Max Weber, and James McNeill Whistler; more than 125,000 historic photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region’s unique history; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprised of nearly 900 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes, and Prairie regions. Visit FenimoreArt.org.