Agriculture + Lifestyle
Cherokee & Gwinnett County students win GFB Art Contests
Posted on August 29, 2024 7:27 PM
Georgia students tapped into their artistic talents to create colorful bookmarks and draw scenes depicting agriculture for the 2024 Georgia Farm Bureau Middle School Bookmark and High School Art Contests.
Ashley McMath, of Cherokee County, sketched the first-place drawing to win the GFB High School Art Contest. McMath won $250 as the state high school art contest winner and $100 as the GFB 1st District winner. She was a senior at River Ridge High School at the time she entered the contest.
Dan Lin, of Gwinnett County, won state honors in the middle school bookmark contest for his vibrant bookmark highlighting Georgia commodities. Lin received $150 for winning the state bookmark contest and $100 as the GFB 3rd District winner. He was a sixth-grade student at SKA Academy when he entered the contest.
Visit www.gfb.ag/2024-hs-art-contest-winners to see all the district winners’ artwork for the 2024 GFB High School Art Contest. Visit www.gfb.ag/24bookmarkwinners to see the district winners’ creations in the 2024 GFB Middle School Bookmark Contest.
This marks the 30th year GFB held its annual high school art contest. This is the third year GFB coordinated a contest for sixth through eighth graders to design a bookmark.
“Georgia Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom Art Contests encourage students to create a piece of art inspired by what they learn about Georgia agriculture after watching a video, doing research, or visiting a farm,” said GFB President Tom McCall. “Students who might not otherwise think about agriculture learn about the variety of crops and livestock Georgia farmers raise as they create their drawings.”
GFB received entries for its high school contest from 77 county Farm Bureaus and entries from 88 county Farm Bureaus for its middle school contest. A panel of judges selected GFB district winners for each contest from all county entries submitted from each district. Once the district winners were selected, all GFB home office employees were invited to vote for their favorite piece of artwork in each contest without knowing the names of the artists nor counties that submitted the sketches and bookmarks.
Contestants in the high school contest were instructed to create a black, white and gray drawing using graphite, charcoal, pastel, chalk, colored pencil, ballpoint pen or mixed media appropriate for printing. Drawings were judged on how well the art represents agriculture in the student’s county or Georgia and for artistic merit.
The middle school contestants were given a blank bookmark and asked to create a design illustrating Georgia agriculture.
Contact your county Farm Bureau office for information about the 2025 contests in mid-November.
Ashley McMath’s winning entry.
District winners in the GFB High School Art Contest
GFB 1st Dist. Ashley McMath Cherokee Co. State Winner
GFB 2nd Dist. Arianna Alvarez Franklin Co.
GFB 3rd Dist. Nereida Leon-Arreola Polk Co.
GFB 4th Dist. Aishwarya “Lexie” Sangam Greene Co.
GFB 5th Dist. Emily Beth Hammock Taylor Co.
GFB 6th Dist. Olivia Durden Dodge Co.
GFB 7th Dist. Sofia Piraino Effingham Co.
GFB 8th Dist. Alexandria Taylor Turner Co.
GFB 9th Dist. Christian Anderson Dougherty Co.
GFB 10th Dist. Grace DuMortier Glynn Co.
District winners in the GFB Middle School Bookmark Contest
GFB 1st Dist. Haley Bolin Forsyth Co.
GFB 2nd Dist. Susana Mares Habersham Co.
GFB 3rd Dist. Dan Lin Gwinnett Co. State Winner
GFB 4th Dist. Yashvi Patel Putnam Co.
GFB 5th Dist. Anna Leigh Coker Upson Co.
GFB 6th Dist. Katherine Yu Treutlen Co.
GFB 7th Dist. Ryder Perdue Chatham Co.
GFB 8th Dist. Juan Ortiz Jr. Randolph Co.
GFB 9th Dist. Lorelei Trulock Grady Co.
GFB 10th Dist. Briana Araiza Ben Hill Co.
Georgia Farm Bureau Educational Programs Coordinator Lauren Goble may be reached at ldgoble@gfb.org or 478-474-0679, ext. 5135. Contact your county Farm Bureau if you’d like to volunteer with its Ag in the Classroom program.