2020 Water Art Invitational
Program Overview
The Water Art Invitational is an annual high school art competition in which participants to create artwork inspired by the year's water-focused theme. Students in grades 9-12 attending public, private and home schools in Prince William County are encouraged to enter by visually depicting this year’s theme using painting/drawing, computer graphics, photography or mixed media. Artists may submit up to one piece per category for a total of four submissions. Winning pieces will be displayed in Service Authority facilities. Winning students and their art teachers will receive cash prizes.
Colgan High School Student Captures Water Art Invitational Grand Prize
Estella Amoussou, a senior at Colgan High School, took home this year’s Grand Prize in the Prince William County Service Authority’s 2020 Water Art Invitational.
Amoussou’s richly detailed painting of residents of a mountainous village using water bested nearly 140 entries in the annual high school art competition. Her entry beautifully captured the theme “Water Connects Us All.” This is Amoussou’s third time earning a prize in the Water Art Invitational.
Ordinarily, the Service Authority hosts a well-attended awards ceremony to announce the winners of the Water Art Invitational. This year’s public event was cancelled in light of the Coronavirus pandemic, but the student artists and their teachers are being celebrated in other ways.
The Service Authority has posted the following video featuring the winning entries.
“Our judges were extremely impressed with all of the entries,” said Deputy Director of Communications Kathy Bentz. “Despite this year’s unusual circumstances, we are delighted to announce our winners. With a 20-year track record of success, we are confident that the Water Art Invitational will continue to grow and inspire local high school students to produce beautiful water-related art.”
The Service Authority has mailed sponsor-provided cash prizes and a certificate to each of the 27 winning artists and will coordinate with the SPARK Education Foundation to distribute cash prizes to teachers of the winning student artists.
First-place winners in this year’s four categories are Geona Kim of Forest Park High School for Computer Graphics, Grace Carroll of Colgan for Mixed Media, Jedsiel Hernandez of Forest Park for Painting and Drawing and Ehsanallah Hussainy of Colgan for Photography.
David Jones of Colgan and Nicholas Austin-Wakefield of Battlefield High School won second and third, respectively in Computer Graphics while Leah Stansbury of Colgan and Buffy Chahal of Patriot High School took second and third in Painting & Drawing. Finally, Wyatt Doughty of Woodbridge High School and Althea Guevara of Forest Park placed second and third, respectively, in the Photography category.
In addition to the Grand Prize and the category winners, 16 others students took home General Manager’s Awards for their fine artwork. The Service Authority General Manager selected these entries for special recognition due to their artistic quality and strong connection to the event’s theme.
The Water Art Invitational would not have been possible without its corporate sponsors, including Presenting Sponsor, Micron Technology. The Micron contribution supports both the Water Art Invitational and the Service Authority’s 2020 Model Water Tower Competition for middle school students.
