Bellport High School is proud to announce that art students Courtney Gerard, Maria Slavnova and Gury Umanzor received awards of recognition at the Heckscher Museum’s Long Island’s Best Young Artists 2019 exhibit. 

This 23rd annual program is the only juried exhibition for high school students that provides the opportunity to exhibit in a museum. Students submit work in a broad range of media, styles and subjects, using artwork on view at the museum as the inspiration for their own work. The object labels next to each work include a statement written by the student and an image of the professional work that inspired them. Heckscher Museum Curator Lisa Chalif and guest juror artist Robyn Cooper juried the 2019 exhibition. This year, the museum received 359 artwork entries from 57 schools, with 80 selected for display in the exhibition.

Courtney, a junior, was the winner of the Donald and Gloria Horn Scholarship Award for her digital photo “Yellowstone” printed on vellum with gold leafing. Maria, a sophomore, was the winner of the Andrew Presberg Promising Young Artist Award for his digital art, “Shades of the City.” Gury, also a junior, won the Cozza Family Photography Award for her digital photograph, “Sit with Me.”  

Courtney and Gury are both students of South Country Art Department Chairperson Suzette-Emma Fandale, and Maria is a student of teacher Brandon Payne.

The district congratulates the students on this outstanding artistic accomplishment.