For nearly four decades, the Scholastic Art Awards have spotlighted the imagination and talent of young artists across mid-central Illinois. What began in 1986, when Rod Buffington brought the national program to the Springfield area, has grown into a vibrant regional tradition spanning 33 counties and hundreds of student submissions each year.
Today, the program is led by educator and artist Amy Lynn, who continues the legacy shaped by Rod and Rosemary Buffington and many dedicated volunteers. From its early days inside the Vinegar Hill Mall’s gallery to displays at Marine Bank and now the Springfield Art Association, the exhibition has steadily expanded in size and scope. Students in grades 7–12 can submit work in categories ranging from drawing and painting to photography, digital art, fashion, fibers, and more. Top regional winners earn Gold Keys, advancing to national judging—placing them among alumni like Andy Warhol, Robert Redford, and Amanda Gorman.
What sets the Mid-Central Illinois Region apart is its personal, educator-driven approach: hands-on workshops, a lively awards ceremony, and a community of teachers, judges, and volunteers who bring the show to life. This year alone, nearly 700 works were reviewed, showcasing astonishing technical skill and creative vision.
Amy Lynn also shared news of Alchemy, an upcoming collaborative show at the Staley Museum this April featuring visual art, poetry, dance, and music. It’s yet another testament to the thriving artistic energy in the region.
Transcripted by AI with human review for readability
Jeff Williams:
Welcome to Community Voices, a production of NPR Illinois. I'm your co-host, Jeff Williams. In the studio with me today, Amy Lynn. She heads up the Scholastic Art Awards.
Amy Lynn:
I'm the chair.
Jeff Williams:
Mid-Central Illinois Region.
Amy Lynn
Absolutely.
Jeff Williams:
You've taken over for Rosemary Buffington. Could you tell me a little history about how it got started?
Amy Lynn:
In this area, Rosemary's husband, Rod Buffington, first started this, and I believe in Champaign, in 1986.
Jeff Williams:
Did he live over there?
Amy Lynn:
No, he had heard about it, was like, we need something like this in our region. We need to bring it to the Springfield area, which is where they live. Then, Vinegar Hill Mall had an art studio there.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, really?
Amy Lynn:
Rod must have ran. Hopefully, I'm getting most of this right.
Jeff Williams:
I did not know there was any kind of an art studio.
Amy Lynn:
It was some kind of art gallery, Jeff's art gallery, I want to say.
We should probably fact check.
Jeff Williams:
Here is the fact checking itself coming from Rod and Rosemary Buffington. The Carnegie Institute's fine art galleries agreed to display the exhibition in the 1930s. It was through the generosity and encouragement of Carnegie Institute and school art leaders that Scholastic launched plans for the first national high school exhibition. Each year, the alliance partnered with more than 100 regional affiliates across the country to bring the program to local communities. Teens grades 7 through 12 could apply in 28 categories of art and writing for the chance to earn scholarships and have their works exhibited or published. In the U.S., national award recipients are celebrated at the gala ceremony held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. That's how it originally happened.
It is now moved to other locations, depending. Seniors earning national medals are eligible to receive scholarships through partnerships with esteemed colleges and universities. The Mid-Central Illinois Region is an affiliate of the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, Incorporated, formed in 1984 by Rod Buffington. Jeffrey's Gallery was the first sponsor of the awards with co-sponsor Nachin Scully of the local, the Scullys, the Martha Vineyard Scullys. The exhibition was held in Vinegar Hill Mall.
In the second year of the program, Marine Bank came on board. That was with Willard Bunn, who was the CEO at the time. It continued on as the Scholastic Art Awards.
For 2010, the Mid-Central Illinois Region had to find a new location. At that point, Mary Ann Stremsterfer, on faculty at Benedictine University, offered Angela Hall for the award day and the Springfield Art Association provided space for the exhibition in their gallery. The past 30 years have seen growth in the region that is now, well, grown and now bolsters over 30 counties. The exhibition for the Mid-Central Illinois Region of the Scholastic Art Awards usually happens in early February. There's the fact check. It blows my mind when I find out something like that I didn't know. I had no idea that there was even a gallery like in Vinegar Hill.
Amy Lynn:
It evolved when I joined. It was a year or two after I started teaching. That would have been about 1999.
Jeff Williams:
You've been involved for a while then. Rod was still running it at that point, or was Rosemary involved then?
Amy Lynn:
Rod was still helping a lot, then Dave Shaw did, Mary Ellen Strack, and then Rosemary for much of the longevity of it. Getting to the point where some of us needed to start taking over more roles. She was doing a whole lot. There's a lot of moving parts, a lot of things that need to be done. So I volunteered.
Jeff Williams:
The region, it started in Champaign?
Amy Lynn:
The area started out smaller initially, then we moved everything here to Springfield. Over the years, we've added counties and now we're up to 33 counties. What we've got now fits our spaces. We have a great partnership with the Springfield Art Association. Prior to that, we would set up the show at the Marine Bank downtown. We would put up panels, rent chairs, do it on a Sunday when the bank was closed. and then, come and take it all down. It was a big production. It was nice. People could go and see the work, but to have it in a gallery is just top.
Jeff Williams:
Setting up walls and doing all that, it's cool that the bank did that, but that's a whole other step when there's a lot of moving parts. The region now extends north to Washington, Illinois.
Amy Lynn:
We've got Peoria, we've got the Champaign area.
Jeff Williams:
It depends on the teachers and what they have going on a lot of times.
Amy Lynn:
We e-mail and let people know this is coming up. The regular scholastics send out a lot of emails nationally. I do try to catch people. If there's a new teacher, remind them, "Hey, we've got this going on, you should submit some work for your students." Ee have the regional awards, but then if they receive any of our top awards, which are Gold Key winners, those go on to be judged nationally. That's amazing because we've got winners like... Andy Warhol was a winner, Robert Redford, writers, because it is the art and writing affiliates.
Jeff Williams:
That's super cool that different people who have been award winners have been part of it over the years. Wasn't Amanda Gorman a past winner too?
Amy Lynn:
When these kids were either in middle school or high school, they were getting awards and now they're these prominent public figures.
One of the wonderful things is each year we try to do a little something more. We give honorable mention pins now and we have people donate some of our fun special awards. The kids are like so stoked about it.
Jeff Williams:
This isn't just for a certain size of school. Any size school can participate.
Amy Lynn:
Any student, any teen can do this. If you are homeschooled or if you don't have a teacher that wants to guide you, you can still get your artwork into this program.
Jeff Williams:
I know there's a lot of submissions, a lot to go through. Were there over 600 this year?
Amy Lynn:
This year was about 678, which were down a little bit. Costs have gone up. Everything seems more expensive. There is an entry fee, but there is a way to have a fee waiver. Some schools pay; some schools help with that. It's always helpful to have a teacher's guidance. It's harder for kiddos that don't have that. If anybody emails me, we try to help.
Jeff Williams:
I help with the judging for scholastic art awards for this region. Usually I'll review the 2-D, the two-dimensional categories, which a lot of times are painting, drawing. Last year I judged with Felicia Olin, who's an artist that a lot of people in the area know, and Tom Whalen, who I believe is now retired from teaching at Lincoln Land Community College.
Amy Lynn:
This will be his last year.
Jeff Williams:
That's a neat thing to be in on the behind the scenes look at all this super cool artwork that the students are doing. It's neat to see how the different variations are technically sound and have vision. The vision is unbelievable, or the concepts they come up with these. It's cool to see. It's open, even fabric art and clothing are a category, too.
Amy Lynn:
Fashion.
Drawing and painting are the biggest. Photography is also a big category.
Jeff Williams:
There's a digital category?
Amy Lynn:
Digital painting and drawing and collage. Then there's experimental photography, regular digital or analog photography, and there's all these nuances. What's the difference between mixed media or fibers, batik? That's where having a teacher to help to explain those things or to go over it. We're still going to judge everything that there is. We are one of the only recognitions in our area that is teacher run. A lot of these scholastic affiliates are museum directors or people who work in the field of the arts and writing, but most of us are actually still currently working in education.
Jeff Williams:
I didn't realize that. I thought it was a blanket across the board. Everybody operated the way the Mid-Central Illinois Region operates.
Amy Lynn:
No, we're kind of weird. We always have a big awards ceremony. We have our big honors day where we invite the kids in for the hands-on workshops. We do a lot that other places do not do. We have a nice size that's manageable. Some places just have =a digital gallery and that's about it. We feel like we really do a lot for our kids.
Jeff Williams:
There's not a lot of time to get the gallery set up. Some artwork came the day of setup, right? It still was getting delivered from a different town?
Amy Lynn:
Yeah.
Jeff Williams:
Usually, I help organize getting all the teachers and other volunteers to come and help get everything set up so it runs smoothly.
Amy Lynn:
Yeah, we're lucky. There are 17 of us. We rely heavily on any volunteers, beta clubs, National Honor Society, art clubs. It's like, "hey, if you want to lend a hand, we are here." And of course, the Art Association, they are always super helpful.
Jeff Williams:
The judging the last couple years has been out at Pleasant Plains.
Amy Lynn:
Yes, A wonderful space, too. Back in the day, we would go to Ursuline Academy and lay all of the artwork out on the gym floor. Let the judges look at it. Pieces are kept and you're not sure they may be in the show, but you don't know what award they'll be given. So, they go in a spot to show everybody, then collecting again, putting it back in the boxes.
Jeff Williams:
That's crazy.
Amy Lynn:
It was a little, it could be a little crazy. There were times there were storms, the power was out, we always got it done. I do love this digital judging format. I love that Pleasant Plains has these nice viewing rooms, and you can comfortably see the art.
Jeff Williams:
Now the way it's set up, there's three judges per category. Back then?
Amy Lynn:
We had 5 judges at a table, and then you walked by slowly, letting them look. You had someone watching, and they would sign yes, or no and it's out of the show.
Jeff Williams:
They still had the paddles, the yes or no paddles?
Amy Lynn:
Yes, those paddles. we have had for many years.
Jeff Williams:
They look like they've been around a little bit. They're still holding up.
Amy Lynn:
Yeah, I'm not going to lose them. We're going to use them. I can't think of a better way to do it, really.
Jeff Williams:
It runs really smoothly. To think about all the physical pieces had to be in the same room and everybody'd do that. Digitally, it is a lot easier now.
Amy Lynn:
They had to also be gallery ready. If they were advanced, we kept them so they could go to the bank.
Jeff Williams:
That's a crazy big process. Jeff Lynn, your husband, he is the MC for the event, right?
Amy Lynn:
Now he is. For a long time, it was Rosemary Buffington and Marianne Stremsterfer. They still do so much, but Jeff's always been in the wings. Whenever you need help, whatever you need help with. Finally, I was, "Can't we just honor you and be a board member finally?"
Jeff Williams:
This last year it was at Southeast High School at their auditorium and last year was at Lanphier's auditorium. The year before that was at Springfield High School's auditorium. So, circulate around the area like that, or it depends on availability and what works best?
Amy Lynn:
We were able to work with the Art Association and hang the work there, then go to Springfield High School and use their auditorium. We did that for several years, but with the new renovations, our first stop was Lanphier and then Southeast, both gorgeous auditoriums. We're looking at a Sacred Heart Griffin next year.
I work with so many amazing people. I could not do any of it without the board members and our volunteers. I'm honored to work with them, and I'm happy to do what I can for this program because it's amazing and wonderful for the kids.
Jeff Williams:
It's really cool to see the actual show. The students are walking around checking out their art, and it's a really, really good show each year.
Also, you're going to be having a show coming up at the Staley Studios. Is that correct?
Amy Lynn:
Yes, in partnership with the Dim Art House and Jan's Dance Creations.
Jeff Williams:
That will be in April,. at the corner of Cottonwood and 14th.
Amy Lynn:
Catty-corner from Jefferson Middle School.
Jeff Williams:
What's the name of that show?
Amy Lynn:
We're calling it Alchemy. We're bringing a lot together. I'm excited. We're going to have poetry and dance, visual arts, music.
Jeff Williams:
That'll be cool. It'll be a different array of local and regional artists of different types that will be involved with that.
Amy Lynn:
It's going to be an incredible coming together of lots of neat things.
Jeff Williams:
Amy Lynn, Scholastic Art Awards, thank you for coming by.
Amy Lynn:
Thank you for inviting me.
Jeff Williams:
Community Voices is a production of NPR Illinois.
