By: Kimberly Redmond

A Randolph teenager was picked as one of the winners of the 10th Annual Mayo Performing Art Center’s student art cover contest.

Aliyah Ravin, a junior at Randolph High School, and Anna Thach, an 8th grader at East Hanover Middle School, each beat out more than 70 other teens for their submissions.

Both girls work will appear later this season on the cover of MPAC program books, which are handed out at evening events. According to MPAC, more than 10,000 theater patrons will see the covers.

Each year, MPAC invites teens throughout Morris County to participate in the program cover art contest and to submit work to appear in the student art gallery exhibit.

This year, students were asked to artistically convey the theme of: “Imagine! Discover! Create! Celebrate MPAC and the Arts.”

The winners were announced during a reception on Feb. 25 and artwork was displayed in the center’s gallery through early March.

Ravin said, “I am more than grateful for my piece to be selected. It was amazing to see how others took the four words given to us and created such a variety of different pieces.”

She added, “Contests such as this one are extremely important to allow people to explore their mind and transfer it into art, but also for others to expand their imagination by seeing how others took the prompt.”

Several other Randolph High School students were named as runners-up in the contest. The students are 11th grader Nicolas Carlucci, 11th grader Karina Garbarini, 11th grader Rahul Rariyani, 11th grader Serena Zhou and 11th grader Makayla Kelly

Mercedes Ingenito, an art teacher at Randolph High School, said the annual contest gives local students a chance to “take on the role of a graphic artist while designing a potential cover for MPAC’s cultural presentations.”

“MPAC is extremely student and teacher friendly, treating our student artists with great respect and professionalism,” Ingenito said. “This is an event that I continue to look forward to each year while incorporating it within my curriculum as it provides such great real life experience for the students.” 

Cathy Shott, an art teacher at East Hanover Middle School, said the contest has been a great “avenue of opportunity” for students studying visual arts.

“Students, using the elements and principles of arts as their guide, turn basic concepts into personally relevant art. MPAC’s supportive atmosphere has given art educators like myself the impetus to direct, as students imagine, experiment, practice and grow through fostering self-expression,” she said.

Viewing the individual artworks of so many talented young adults at the MPAC gallery both enhances and supports the need for arts education,” Shott said.

Contest submissions can be viewed by logging onto www.mayoarts.org.