Winners Announced for Student Competition "This Art is Your Art"

From top left, clockwise: Blair Katherine Betik, Qiong (Voyo) Wu, Natalia Gabrielsen, Lauren Blankenship and Mekia “Machine” Denby.

Winners Announced for Student Competition "This Art is Your Art"


We are pleased today to announce the winners of This Art Is Your Art, an online competition that invited graduate and undergraduate students in the United States to create videos responding to works of art in the White House. The competition was hosted by the White House Historical Association, Artsy and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

A panel of eight renowned artists, educators, museum professionals and public figures judged the videos created by the students. The winners were selected on the basis of the creativity, relevancy and production value of their projects:

  • Blair Katherine Betik, Southern Methodist University, Class of 2018, from Ennis, TX for her video on Albert Bierstadt’s Rocky Mountain Landscape (1870)
  • Lauren Blankenship, Portland State University, Class of 2017, from Portland, OR for her video on Georgia O’Keeffe’s Mountain at Bear Lake – Taos (1930)
  • Mekia “Machine” Denby, Columbia University, Class of 2018, from New York, NY for her video on Alma Thomas’ Resurrection (1966)
  • Natalia Gabrielsen, University of Arizona Graduate School, Class of 2017, from Tucson, AZ for her video on O’Keeffe’s painting
  • Qiong “Voyo” Wu, Sotheby’s Graduate School, Class of 2017, from New York, NY for her video on Robert Rauschenberg’s Early Bloomer [Anagram (A Pun)] (1998)

The winning videos will be on display at the White House Visitor Center, in a special installation organized by the Rauschenberg Foundation and the White House Historical Association, from July 15 to September 30, 2016.

Watch the winning videos for This Art is Your Art >

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