GCHS student Katlyn Stevnson has been named an American Visions Gold Medalist, one of 44 medalist out of more than 11,000 artists in nation.
According to art teacher, this is "a very prestigious award-one that I have not been aware of a GCHS student winning in the 21 years that I have been teaching Art here."
The award will be presented by the National Scholastic Art and Writing Alliance in June at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Stevenson started this path with an oil painting "She is" entered in the Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards last December. In our region, the South Central Kentucky Region, she won a Gold Key and a nomination for the American Visions Award.
According to a letter to Stevenson from Christopher Wisniewski, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, “Over 110,000 students entered more than 335,000 original works of art and writing to the 2026 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. [Katlyn’s] work was selected by some of the foremost leaders in the visual and literary arts for excellence in originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Since 1923, the Awards have celebrated teen artists and writers from across the country.”
Katlyn’s piece will be published in online galleries at artandwriting.org (page 132) and her name will be listed in their Yearbook 2026 which features selections of works by National Medalists.
As part of her award, she has been invited to National Awards Week in New York City where she will be recognized and given her medal on stage at Carnegie Hall. This event will be held June 9-11, 2026.
Katlyn has already registered and reserved a room at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square-the hotel that is being utilized for national winners. According to Dowell, Stevenson has started a gofundme to help pay for expenses. In her own words, “this dream moment feels out of reach without your support. The costs for travel, accommodation, and meals are overwhelming and I fear missing my once-in-a lifetime moment of recognition.”
"I am asking you, help this young artist. She simply cannot go without support," said Dowell in an email on Friday. "Two discounted nights at the event hotel, the Marriott Marquis, was close to $1200.00. She still needs to book flights for her and her mother, have money for transportation in the city, and for food while there. The link to her gofundme is https://gofund.me/61f92b140. Here you can read Katlyn’s story and view an image of her award-winning piece, “She is.” She has selected $2000 as her goal, but we all know that that simply isn’t enough and we can do better than that."
One of Stevenson's more recent painting is featured above.