Spokane Community Observance of the Holocaust announces art contest winners

A stained glass piece titled “Ometz” and a drawing called “Path of Hope” are the winners of this year’s Jessica Stein Memorial Art Contest.

The theme for the contest, which is part of the Spokane Community Observance of the Holocaust, was “Young Heroes of the Holocaust.” Middle school and high school artists were asked to create art inspired by the acts of young Europeans like Carla Peperzak who helped save the lives of Jewish people during World War II.

The winning artwork and honorable mentions will be on display at Temple Beth Shalom, 1322 E. 30th Ave., at 7 p.m. on May 6 during the Spokane Community Observance of the Holocaust . The event will feature the winners of last year’s Eva Lassman Memorial Writing contest, a children’s candle processional, a candle lighting ceremony and music by the Central Valley High School Chamber Orchestra and the Spokane Jewish Community Choir.

After the observance, the pieces will be exhibited at the Central Spokane Public Library, 906 W. Main Ave., through the end of May.

Mackenzie Winchell, a senior at On-Track Academy, took first place in the high school division. The title of her piece, “Ometz,” is the Hebrew word for courage. In her artist statement, Winchell says she took inspiration from several young women, including Peperzak and Sophie Scholl.

The bridge at the center of her piece symbolizes Amsterdam, where Peperzak grew up. The river, she writes, inspires hope and its currents are as strong as the bravery these women. Hidden in the river below the bridge are roses, in honor of Scholl, a resistance fighter with the White Rose movement. The rays of color beaming from the bridge represent the hope created by the women’s actions and the generations that exist because of them.

Winchell is donating the piece to Peperzak Middle School, “as a colorful, hopeful reminder that being brave enough to do the right thing can make anyone a hero.”

Nora Smith, a junior at University High School, won second place for her piece, “The White Rose.” Alexandra House, a junior at Ridgeline High School, took third place with “Siblings of the White Rose.”

Honorable mentions for the high school division are: Quinn Troye, junior, Ridgeline, “Follow the Leader”; Cassandra Lim, senior, East Valley, “Freddie In 1940”; Isabella Aragon, freshman, East Valley, “Schießpulver”; Harper Jordan, sophomore, East Valley, “Fourteen-Thousand”; Jazmin Adams, junior, East Valley, “The Girl’s Bike”; Audrey White, sophomore, Ridgeline, “Never Fully Fades”; Bree-Anny Calvo, junior, Ridgeline, “Laughter in Silence”; Lily Sullivan, senior, East Valley, “The Girl with the Red Hair”; and Vi Quach, junior, Ridgeline, “Take the Call to Help.”

In the middle school division, first-place winner Kaitlyn Graham depicts Jean-Raphael Hirsh, a French Resistance fighter during World War II who used his bicycle to bring food, clothes, medicine and messages to Jews in hiding. He was 9 when he became a liaison agent and continued his work with the Resistance after his parents were captured.

Graham is a seventh-grader at Northwest Christian Schools.

“Biking into darkness and uncertainty in hope of giving at least a little light to those in the shadows, he inspires us to shine bright in dark times, just like he did,” Graham writes in her artist statement.

Deziree Blyleven, an eighth-grader at Salk Middle School, won second place with “A Memorial to the White Rose Movement.” Brooke Rettedal, a seventh-grader at Northwest Christian, took third with “Light of Love Despite Darkness of Risk.” Honorable mention: Lillian Daley, eighth-grader at Pauline Flett Middle School, for “Sophie Scholl, White Rose Resistance fighter.”