The Robert J. Block Awards for Excellence in the Arts
Honoring and recognizing artists in each of Seattle’s 16 public high schools.
Honoring and recognizing artists in each of Seattle’s 16 public high schools.
2021 Winners
The 2021 Allied Arts Foundation Block Awards Committee, chaired by Carey Page, congratulates the outstanding winners of this year’s awards!
Special thanks goes out to all the teachers and counselors who persevered against the COVID-19 school closures to make these awards happen. You are our heroes!
Alan T. Sugiyama High School at South Lake
Cupreme Betton — Visual Arts
Infinity Flores-Barillas — Visual Arts
Alexander Phengphachanh — Visual & Literary Arts
Ballard High School
Al Johnson — Theatre Arts 
Clara Mooney —Fine Arts
Mercedes Tucker — Music
Chief Sealth International High School
- Leah Golan — Visual Art
- Jonathan Laguna Medina — Literary Arts
- Thurston “TJ” Stone — Visual Art
Cleveland STEM High School
- Sarah Ernst — Music
Brooklyn Jimeno — Visual Arts: Photography- Eleanor Works — Visual Arts
Franklin High School
Yuki McKenzie — Visual Art
Dev Vasquez Gonzalez — Performing Arts- Frederick Von Brandenfels — Music
Garfield High School
- Adenike Adejumobi — Visual Arts: Drawing
- Ryan Tenu Ahn — Visual Arts: Painting
- Sophia Chrysanthakopoulis — Visual Arts: Drawing
Ingraham High School
Bonnie Ha — Performing Arts: Theatre
Wesley Kohashi — Visual Arts- Mollie McGibbon — Music
Interagency High School
- Samara Jeffrey — Music
- Kai Spratt — Visual Arts
Lincoln High School
Lucy Laybourn — Visual Arts
Theo Pleasure Park — Music
Drew Sherrard — Theatre
Nathan Hale High School
Oxzyana “Zya” Byrne — Writing & Visual Art (tie)
Helena Goos — Writing & Visual Art (tie)
Denali Naylor — Visual Art
Camille Pua’a — Music
Nova High School
- Jha’Quez “JJ” Konick-Seese — Music
- Kabir Kukathas — Visual Art: Animation
- Tyler Prosch — Music
Rainier Beach High School
- Alec Situ — Performing Arts
- Arlo Wallis Blonde — Music: Band
- Elias Welch — Visual Arts — Ceramics
Roosevelt High School
- Hailey Green — Visual Arts (tie)
- Brooke Lambert — Music
- Skylar Lin — Visual Arts (tie)
- Alice Watson — Theatre
Seattle World School
- Magarsa Ahmed — Visual Arts: Drawing & Painting
- Angel Martinez — Visual Arts: Drawing & Painting
- Xuan Nhu Tran — Visual Arts: Drawing & Painting
The Center School
- Bayla Cohen-Knott — Literary Arts
- Jonas Dodge — Performing Arts
Audrey Shuman — Visual Arts
West Seattle High School
- Nikhil Chhagan — Visual Arts
- Kelton Hisatomi — Visual Arts
- Helen Schlachter — Music
Our goal:
Allied Arts Foundation believes in the value of the arts as central to the life and vibrance of our community. We believe this starts with supporting the arts in schools and encouraging the next generation of citizens and leaders.
We produce the Block Awards to ensure that student artists are recognized at their school’s year-end assemblies on par with athletes, academic achievers, and other student-body standouts. We aim to build artist’s resumes and bolster college applications.
It is with great pleasure that we get first introduction to Seattle’s budding artistic talent, and it is our wish to follow the progress of award recipients in the years to come.
About:
The Block Awards consist of:
- A signed award certificate
- A letter of achievement
- A $200 check or Visa gift card
- Cultural opportunities such as tickets to plays for performing artists, museum memberships for visual artists, studio recording time for musicians, etc.
Thank you to our donors:
Categories:
The Block Awards are given in four main categories (although, with the exception of ties, each school may only nominate three winners):
- Performing Arts
Including actors, singers, dancers, performance artists, stage managers, costume designers, lighting directors, etc. 
Literary Arts
Including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, spoken word, screenwriters, and other writing-related arts.- Musical Arts
Including musicians, composers, conductors, band managers, studio technicians, DJs, and other music-related arts.
- Visual Arts
Including painters, printmakers, sculptors, ceramists, photographers, filmmakers, fiber artists, mixed media artists and other visual arts.
Nomination Process:
The Block Awards are not a competition and there is no application process. Winners are nominated by art teachers and school counselors. Winners may come from any high school grade level.
When possible, early nominations are made in November so that the award may be included on senior winners’ college applications. Awards are presented at the end of the school year at graduations and award ceremonies.
History:
When Allied Arts Foundation founder Robert J. Block (see below) set aside an endowment to fund the arts, it was understood that one of his chief passions was the encouragement of the young to pursue their art. In 1998, two years after his passing, Allied Arts Foundation founded the Robert J. Block Awards for Artistic Excellence to honor his memory and carry on his legacy of nurturing young artists.
Since then, over 1,200 awards have been given to young, promising artists in Seattle’s public high schools.
In 2017, thanks to important funding from Wyman Youth Trust, we doubled the award amount to $200 and began enhancing our awards with cultural opportunities donated by outstanding organizations such as Seattle Symphony, Seattle Art Museum, Frye Art Museum, Bellevue Arts Museum, and Robert Lang Studios.
We welcome contributions earmarked for the Block Awards to add incentive and encouragement for public high school youth in their artistic growth.
About Robert J. Block:
Described once by a friend as “the yeast in Seattle’s dough,” Robert Jackson Block was an activist’s activist whose strong opinions and bold ideas helped propel the city of Seattle toward the 21st century from the 20th century.
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2020 Block Award Winners
Special thanks goes out to all the teachers and counselors who persevered against the COVID-19 school closures to make these awards happen.
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2019 Block Award Winners
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2018 Block Award Winners
2017 Block Award Winners
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