Alliance for Young Artists & Writers Announces $500,000 Gift from The Destina Foundation to Establish Annual Dorothea Tanning Gold Medal Portfolio Award

Newly named award is the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards' first to be endowed in honor of an artist

NEW YORK, March 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the nonprofit presenter of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, is pleased to announce that it has received an endowment gift of $500,000 from The Destina Foundation to establish The Dorothea Tanning Gold Medal Portfolio Award.  This donation creates the largest endowment in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards' history and the program's first endowed award to be fully funded and named in honor of an artist.

The Dorothea Tanning Portfolio Award commemorates the legacy of the renowned artist and writer, distinguished by her independent spirit, experimental approach in various media, and achievements in both the visual and literary arts. Annually, the recipient of the Tanning Award will be selected through the national competition process of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, which provide significant recognition and scholarship opportunities to teenagers whose work excels in originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. 

Administered by The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, The Dorothea Tanning Portfolio Award will be incorporated into the Awards' pre-existing Gold Medal Portfolio Awards—the program's highest national honor—presented to high school seniors for their outstanding portfolios in art or writing. Underwritten by the Destina Foundation Endowment Fund, the Dorothea Tanning Award includes a scholarship prize, currently valued at $12,500, as well as related program support.

The inaugural Dorothea Tanning Portfolio Award will be awarded on March 26, when the Alliance announces the national medalists for the 2025 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

"This generous endowment is a landmark moment for the Alliance, enabling us to further support the journeys of even more young creatives in the years ahead," said Christopher Wisniewski, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. "As one of the nation's most significant sources of scholarships for young artists and writers, we rely on the support of partners like The Destina Foundation to accomplish our mission, and we are immensely grateful to The Destina Foundation for their commitment to the ongoing success of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. This endowment underscores the importance of nurturing, championing, and investing in the creative potential of today's youth, and we look forward to the profound impact it will have on future generations of Awards recipients. Dorothea Tanning exemplifies so many of the values we champion at the Alliance, and we are honored to present this award in her name."

"It is our privilege to partner with the Alliance in establishing The Dorothea Tanning Gold Medal Portfolio Award," said Pamela S. Johnson, President of The Destina Foundation. "An award that recognizes both the accomplishments and the potential of teenaged artists and writers is a perfect way to celebrate Dorothea Tanning's lifetime of creativity, experimentation, and generosity. I know she would join us in congratulating each recipient of the Tanning Award just beginning to explore what she once described as the 'limitless expanse of POSSIBILITY' that she had discovered in the arts as a young person."

For more information about this landmark endowment, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, visit artandwriting.org

About the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides guidance, recognition, and support for the next generation of artists and writers, and the platforms for showcasing their work to a national audience. The Alliance administers The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a program that provides teens with opportunities for celebration, exhibition, publication, and scholarships. Annually, more than 100,000 teens across the United States and Canada enter original works in 28 different categories of art and writing. Beyond The Awards, the Alliance produces a number of programs to support creative teens and their educators, including the National Student Poets Program, a national exhibition program, Summer Scholarships program, residencies for educators, and professional development and microgrant programs for Awards alumni to pursue their creative endeavors.

For more information about the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, made possible through the generosity of numerous individual, foundation, government, and corporate funders, visit www.artandwriting.org. Additional details about the Awards can be found on the Scholastic Newsroom: www.scholastic.com/newsroom/online-press-kits/scholastic-art-writing-awards.html. 

About the Dorothea Tanning (1910-2012):

Born in 1910 in Galesburg, Illinois, Dorothea Tanning established herself as a painter in New York's vibrant art scene of the 1940s.  Although affiliated with surrealism early in her career, she developed a unique mode of expression over the course of seven decades living in the United States and France, one that explored the contours of the human form and tested the boundaries between figuration and abstraction. Tanning's work in painting, sculpture, drawing, collage, and printmaking, and collage is known internationally and represented in major museum collections and exhibitions. Writing throughout her lifetime, she turned primarily to poetry in her late years; her published works include two memoirs (1986 and 2001), a novel (2004), and two collections of poems (2004 and 2011). Tanning died in 2012 at the age of 101.

For more information about Dorothea Tanning, visit: www.dorotheatanning.org.

About The Destina Foundation and The Dorothea Tanning Foundation:

Based in New York, The Destina Foundation was established in 2015 to distribute the art and assets of Dorothea Tanning's Estate for philanthropic purposes. Through both direct program activities and grants, the Foundation aims to encourage public knowledge and appreciation of the visual, performing and literary arts, and to support creative expression, environmental stewardship, and humanitarian efforts, which were deeply important to its benefactor. 

The Destina Foundation works in partnership with The Dorothea Tanning Foundation, which was formed in 1997 to manage the artist's archive and educate the public about her enduring cultural contributions. Ongoing projects include the compilation of a catalogue raisonné and an informational website devoted to the artist's life and work.

SOURCE Alliance for Young Artists & Writers