Reflections Art Program

Calling all Paly creators to enter works in the PTA Reflections Art Program!

The PTA Reflections Art Program provides opportunities for recognition and access to the arts for all students.

Each year, over 300,000 students in Pre-K through Grade 12 create original works of art in response to a student-selected theme.

The 2022-23 Reflections Art Program theme is  – Show Your Voice!”

Students, Submit your artwork:

Click here to open the Virtual Student Entry Form
The deadline for entry is 11:59 am, October 22, 2022
  • Use your personal email or your parents/guardian email to fill out the virtual student entry form. The virtual student entry form will not accept a school email address (any .edu address).
  • Make sure that after you have uploaded your entry and completed the Virtual Student Entry Form, you must then scroll down to click on the “Submit Box”. 
  • You will then receive an email from Google Forms that your submission was received.

If you have questions or concerns, please email reflections@palyptsa.org.

Reflections encourages students of all ages to:

  • Unleash creative talents and be inspired
  • Express themselves imaginatively in their artwork
  • Experience the fun and joy of making art
  • Tap into critical thinking skills to create art inspired by the annual theme
  • Receive positive recognition for their original works of art.

General Rules

2022-23 Rules by Category:
Annual Theme Search

Each year, students are invited to submit themes for the annual Reflections Art Program that will inspire young artists to create original works.

Submit your Theme search entries between September 1, 2022 and November 1, 2022.

FAQs
  • Does the student need to be a member of the Paly PTSA to enter? While we encourage all families to join the PTSA, there is no membership requirement in order to participate in the Reflections program.
  • Does the parent of a student need to be a member of the Paly PTSA to enter? Again, no.  This program is something that the PTSA offers all Paly Students.
  • Are there prizes? There are different prizes determined at each level.  Winners will earn recognition on the local, district, state and national levels or the program.
  • When will the winners be announced? The Paly winners will be announced at our Reflections celebration in early November.  Please check back for a specific date.

Judges

Taryn Curiel is an artist and a teacher. She has cultivated her passion for creativity and art from a young age in her hometown of Mexico City. After moving to the Bay Area she has enjoyed an award-winning international art career, while keeping close ties with her native country. An abstract watercolor artist with more than 20 years of painting experience, Taryn has been sharing and teaching her love of art with teens and adults for nearly ten years.

Jocelyn Dong is the editor of the Palo Alto Weekly/PaloAltoOnline.com and editorial director for the Weekly’s parent company, Embarcadero Media. She’s also a proud graduate of Palo Alto High School and Pomona College. In her 23 years with the Weekly, she has covered health, business, land use and general news. Jocelyn has received recognition for her work from national, state and local press clubs. Prior to becoming a journalist, she worked in the nonprofit sector, during which time she also completed a mass-communications master’s degree.

Cindy Ginanni has a lifetime of training in jazz, tap, and ballet and is the Artistic Director of Dance Connection. She has been teaching dance for 40 years to all ages and abilities, and is now seeing the second generation of her dance students. Cindy founded Dance Connection in 1987, located at the Cubberley Community Center.

Adam Schnitzer is a digital cinematographer who has worked in the film industry for the past 25 years. At Pixar, the first animated feature he worked on was A Bugs Life. Other Pixar films on which he did camera and staging (also known as “layout”) are Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., and then, much later, Cars 3, Incredibles 2, Luca, Soul, and Onward. In between those two groups of films he worked as a digital camera operator and previs artist at ILM, first on the Clone Wars TV series, then on films such as Rango, Pacific Rim, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Rogue One. He is currently employed at Pixar again, and most recently was the Lead Layout artist on the new Disney Plus series Cars on the Road.

Anita Su is a visual arts teacher at PAUSD. She currently teaches Art Spectrum and all upper-level Drawing and Painting classes at Henry M. Gunn High School. She went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to study Fine Arts and Art Education. Her favorite art practice at the moment is drawing with dry media, but she also loves painting, ceramics, and photography.

Claudia Bloom earned her Bachelor of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music as a full scholarship student under Raphael Bronstein and Ariana Bronne. Upon graduation Ms. Bloom received the Karl Kraeuter Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chamber Music. She completed her Master of Music degree as a teaching assistant at the Yale School of Music where she studied with Syoko Aki Erle. Ms. Bloom was a member of the Ciompi Quartet in residence at Duke University as well as a full-time member of the faculty. She was co-concertmaster of the Zurich (Switzerland) Symphony Orchestra. Currently she plays principal second violin in Opera San Jose, is a member of the Grace Note Chamber Players, the Corina Quartet, the Kineret Quartet as well as performing as a recitalist. Claudia has been the director of the Palo Alto School of Chamber Music (www.schoolofchambermusic.com) since 2015 and the program welcomes musicians of all ages and skill levels and is a year long program.

Martha Sakellariou is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Palo Alto California. She has lived and worked in Greece, the UK and US and holds an MA from the Royal College of Art, London and a BFA from the Athens School of Fine Arts.  Using a wide range of traditional and non traditional media including photography, video, installation, performance and textiles, she explores ideas and themes of domesticity and identity. Her works have been exhibited internationally and belong to private and public collections. marthasakellariou.com 

Tarn Wilson is the author of the books 5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts: 501 Prompts to Unleash Your Creativity and Inspire You to Write, In Praise of Inadequate Gifts, and The Slow Farm. Her essays appear in numerous literary journals, including Brevity, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, River Teeth, Ruminate, and The Sun.