On April 2, The Heckscher Museum of Art's Long Island's Best: Young Artists at the Heckscher celebrated its 10th anniversary. This annual arts-in-education program, which began in 1996 with 15 participating schools, has since matured into an eagerly anticipated annual event with approximately 49 Long Island school districts from Nassau and Suffolk counties, as well as students in the Heckscher-USDAN Student Art Institute, participating.

A cornerstone of the Heckscher Museum's renowned public programming for high school students, this juried competition provided an excellent opportunity for aspiring, talented, young artists to make connections between professional art on view in the museum setting and their own creative interests. All high school students who visited the Heckscher from early fall through February - either through the Heckscher's School Discovery Program or on their own - were encouraged to enter their artwork in the highly competitive juried exhibition.

Students carefully selected a work of art on display that appeals to their artistic and creative interests. In the following months, the students carefully developed their ideas, each writing and submitting an artist's statement for review. In this statement, participants described how they planned to connect the professional work chosen to their own artistic interests and created an original work of art in the media of their choice.

In March, the difficult decision-making began and the approximately 300 entries were narrowed down to the winning 80 to 90 student works presented in the exhibition. For 2006, Dr. Kenneth Wayne, Heckscher's new chief curator of collections and exhibitions, juried the competition for the first time.

Among the winners were Hicksville High School seniors and Achievement Award winners Kristie Waters and Jennifer Puccio. Waters was recognized for her work in ceramics while Puccio was recognized for her work in photography.

In addition, for 2006, in celebration of the exhibition's 10th anniversary, the Heckscher invited past Long Island's Best exhibitors - who have continued to pursue the arts - to submit a current work of art for a special juried Alumni Exhibition 2006. On a local front, alumni exhibitors included Our Lady of Mercy graduates Madeline Hackett and Christine Lorusso, who is currently a student at the School of Visual Arts.

Year after year, Long Island's Best has been a favorite exhibition among visitors, both young and old alike. This year promises to be no exception.

"One of my first memories of the Heckscher was teaching a visiting group of elementary students using the artwork in Long Island's Best: Young Artists at the Heckscher," stated Joy Weiner, director of education and public programs at Heckscher. "They were incredibly excited to discover that the artwork was created not by professional artists, but by high school students. I was equally impressed; and with every passing year, I continue to be amazed by the caliber of artwork Long Island high school students create for this special exhibition."

Long Island's Best: Young Artists at the Heckscher and Alumni Exhibition 2006 will be on view at the Heckscher Museum of Art through April 23. Scholarships and awards - including a scholarship provided by Clark University and several HMA Bianchi Scholarship awards presented by Lynette Bianchi - also will be given to a number of these dedicated and talented students.

Long Island's Best: Young Artists at the Heckscher and Alumni Exhibition 2006 was sponsored by the Citigroup Foundation and made possible in part through grants from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation (NYS OPRHP), the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the Town of Huntington.