information from Allied Arts Foundation

Three students at Chief Sealth International High School have been presented with Allied Arts Foundation’s prestigious Robert J. Block Awards for Artistic Excellence. 

Founded in 1998, the awards recognize and support outstanding Seattle high school students involved in visual, theatrical, musical and/or literary arts. Winners received $200, an award certificate, and cultural opportunity items such as tickets to The Vera Project, and memberships to The Frye Art Museum.

Tierra Shaw for excellence in Visual Arts

“Tierra has made tremendous gains this last year, especially evident in her pursuit of the arts and the rigors of the IB Visual Art course. Self confidence, independence and artistic goals are areas of strength she is working on. Recent experience teaching young kids in art camps has furthered her confidence as an artist and young adult. She has become more confident in her own studio practice and experimentation with media, taking risks she would not have considered in previous years. We are very proud of the hard work growth she has exhibited.” — Carolyn Autenrieth, Visual Arts Department Head

Jason Ahmed for excellence in Music

“Jason has been involved in the music department for all 4 years at Sealth, actively in piano for 3 years and choir for 1 year. Jason has an extreme love and passion for music, and hopes to go to Western Washington University next year to study music with the intent of becoming a singer/songwriter. I have watched Jason throw himself into music this year in many ways, both on stage and behind the scenes. He spent the better part of this year working with Alex Wren, studying the production side of music, and he has spent countless hours studying independently with me to learn the more complex elements of music, including the major/minor scales, the circle of fifths, and the chord progressions chart. Jason will go on to do great things in the music industry and I hope this award will help provide him with resources along the way.” — Brittany Delong, Music Educator

Riley Delora for excellence in Literary Arts

“Riley just writes whether he is assigned to write or not.  He has written multitudes of stories, philosophical tracts, chapters for novels, etc. and is always the process of writing independently.  He loves literature and discusses it passionately, and he is an amazing reader and character actor—he can bring a character to life when we read plays in the classroom!  He is someone who I hope will continue to burst with creativity and productivity for years to come.” — Amber Allison, Instructor