Three Artistic Pasadena High School Students Create Winning Airport Posters

Three students – all from Pasadena High School – were chosen as winners in the 9th annual Bob Hope Airport Tower Banner Student Art Contest, where high school students from Pasadena, Burbank and Glendale – the three cities that jointly manage the airport – are invited to submit artwork designs for exhibition on the airport’s historic airport tower.

The theme for this year’s competition was “History in Aviation.”

For Pasadena, the city’s Arts and Culture Commission selected the three winning entries before submission and presentation to the Burbank-Pasadena-Glendale Airport Authority. The selection panel included three Arts and Culture Commissioners and a community representative. The two other cities also decided on their own three winning entries.

The Airport Authority decides on an annual theme for the competition, which for this year was “History in Aviation,” and awards $3,000 to each participating school district. This year’s winners were chosen from a total of 219 entries across all three districts.
The entries were presented during the Airport Authority’s March 7 meeting.

Jordan Garcia, a 10th grader from PHS, placed first in the Pasadena contest. Erandy Wells, another 10th grader, placed second, and 11th grader Bryan Nguyen placed third.

The winning banners will be enlarged to 16 feet by 26 feet and displayed at the airport terminal tower for three months on rotation beginning June 2016, where they will be seen by nearly a million travelers as they arrive and depart the airport.

Garcia’s work will be on display beginning in April 2017.

Since the contest’s inception nine years ago, $22,500 has been awarded to each school district in honor of the winning entries. The award will be used to help support and promote the districts’ arts education programs.

The contest is scheduled to begin again in September 2016. To be eligible to enter the contest, student artists must be enrolled in Grades 9 to 12 in the public high schools of Burbank Unified School District, Glendale Unified School District or Pasadena Unified.

Students interested in participating should contact the art faculty or art department at their high school for details.

To view the winning entries for 2016, visit www.bobhopeairport.com/about/art-winners.