by Caroline Gentile ’13, Co-Editor-In-Chief

After learning that one of her photos had won a Gold Medal at Scholastic Nationals last spring, Abby McInturf ‘13 thought that the competition was over. Several weeks

ago, however, Abby found out that the same winning photo was one of 45 pieces of art selected by the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities to be included in an exhibition in Washington, D.C., entitled Art.Write.Now..

McInturf is the only person from Cincinnati Country Day School to have ever garnered such an honor, and one of two people from Ohio whose work was selected. “I was surprised,” admits McInturf, “I didn’t even know it was an option.” Ms. Carole Lichty-Smith, the Upper School Fine Arts Department Chair, was also “absolutely stunned.” She had also assumed that after Scholastics Nationals, “everything was done and over until next year. I had no idea the competition continued.”

The President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities chose the pieces for the exhibition from the pool of drawings, paintings, and photos that won Gold Medals at Scholastics Nationals. According to Lichty-Smith, winning a Gold Medal is very prestigious in itself because there are over 400,000 entries at the beginning of the competition, and only the Gold Medal winners from each region have the chance to move on to the National competition. Just being in the running for a spot in the Art.Write.Now exhibit is “absolutely amazing,” she said.

McInturf’s winning image was taken of a building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while she was on a family trip to Boston. She then worked with the photo in Photoshop to add color.

McInturf, her family, and Lichty-Smith will be attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Art.Write.Now at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building in Washington D.C. on October 15, 2012.