South Bend, IN -  On Saturday, Congressman Joe Donnelly hosted the 2009 Congressional Art Competition at The Crossroads Gallery. More than 90 pieces of artwork were submitted by high school students. Donnelly announced that Matt Bernstein, a senior at Penn High School, won first place in the competition for his entry, “Concussion,” in oil pastel.

“I want to congratulate our 2009 Congressional Art Competition winner, Matt Bernstein, for his beautiful piece of work. This is a great event to showcase some of our local artistic talent,” Donnelly said. “It’s great to see the creativity and hard work of all of the participants. We certainly have some incredible artists in north central Indiana.”

The theme of this year’s competition is “An Artistic Discovery.” The winner of the competition will have his piece hung in a hallway of the Capitol for one year. Students were invited to submit a painting, drawing, collage, photograph, print, mixed media piece or a computer-generated piece of art.

Bernstein and his parents will be flown out to Washington to join Donnelly for the unveiling of his winning entry.

Awards were presented to:

o Matthew Bernstein for 1st place for his entry “Concussion” in oil pastel. Matthew is a senior at Penn High School and lives in Granger. 

o Alysha Six for 2nd place for her entry “Alysha” in colored pencil. Alysha is a senior and attends John Glenn High School. She is from Walkerton. 

o Garrett Blad for 3rd place for his entry “Alas Poor Garrett” in charcoal. Garrett is a sophomore at John Glenn High School and is from Walkerton.

o Karmen Clearwater for 4th place for her entry “Displace Yourself” in colored pencil. Karmen is a senior at Penn High School. She is from Mishawaka.

Here I am with Matthew Bernstein and his winning entry. 

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