Arts Arlington Youth Banner Initiative

This year, ninety-five students submitted artwork to the Youth Banner Initiative and twenty designs have now been selected to be printed as banners and hung on light poles along Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington Center. Three Arlington based panelists juried the artwork,including artists Pinal Maniar, Karen McCarthy, and the new Executive Director of Arlington Center for the Arts Tom Formicola. The group reviewed the artwork based on two criteria: creative interpretation of the theme “cycles” and readability of the image (since banners are viewed from a distance.)

A reception to celebrate all participants will be held on April 2 during Arlington High School’s annual art show. At that time, three scholarship winners and a People’s Choice winner will be announced.

The printed banners typically are hung in early April. The previous years’ banners are being repurposed into beautiful and useful totes and will be available for purchase. The Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture administers the initiative, and Kaitlin Longmire is the program’s coordinator. We are grateful to Visual Arts Department head David Ardito, and all of the wonderful art teachers at the high school and middle school, for making this program so successful by encouraging their students to create and submit artwork.

Arlington Public Art

Youth Banners 2020

The committee chose images by the following 20 students:

2020 Youth Banner Art

Photos from Previous Winners of the Youth Banner Project