MONTPELIER — Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., recently announced the winner of the 37th Annual Congressional Art Competition at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. Aidan Bundock of Shelburne and Champlain Valley Union High School won first-place honors for his watercolor painting, “Midnight Snacks.” Bundock’s piece was selected from a field of 169 student entries representing 39 high schools across Vermont.
New Haven resident Lydia Pitts, a senior at Mount Abraham Union High School, won a Congressman Welch’s Choice Award for her mixed media piece called, “Fragmented Thoughts.”
“Every year, I am amazed by the creativity of talented young artists across Vermont,” Rep. Welch said. “As always, picking a winner was incredibly tough.”
The Congressional Art Competition is a nationwide high school visual art competition initiated in 1981 by then-Rep. Jim Jeffords to celebrate and encourage the artistic talent of young people from across the country. High school students submit entries to their U.S. Representative’s office and panels of local artists in each congressional district select the winners. The first-place pieces are then displayed for one year in the tunnel between the U.S. Capitol building and the three House office buildings — a route traveled daily by members of Congress, their staffs, and tourists from all over the country.