WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, a visual and literary arts program for secondary students, has announced its national award-winning young artists and writers for 2004.

The national winners from Maine include Ryoko Arai and Chris Ringston, Gould Academy; Genevieve Lysen and Ashley Nadeau, Lewiston High School; Isabel Parkinson, Middle School of the Kennebunks; Cat Bates, Kennebunk High School; and Kate Martens, North Yarmouth Academy.

Parkinson won a gold award; the others won silver awards.

Award-winning students from across the United States will participate in the NYC Experience, the national celebration for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards of 2004 on June 10 and 11.

Included in the celebration will be the National Awards Ceremony at Carnegie Hall, the annual benefit dinner at the Plaza Hotel and an exhibition of selected works of art at the Diane von Furstenburg Theater. In addition, the students will participate in a series of professional workshops, site visits and cultural experiences for student award winners.

The Scholastic Awards National Student Art Exhibition of 2004, featuring more than 225 pieces of artwork created by the student winners, will be unveiled at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It will be on display to the public from June 19 to Aug. 2.

The artwork will also be displayed in a virtual gallery, which will be available for viewing this fall online at http://www.artandwriting.org.