Junior Emma Beer Wins Congressional Art Competition

    Every year, each member of the House of Representatives honors one high school student from their district by selecting a piece of artwork to display at the Capitol through the Congressional Art Competition. This year, Congressman Josh Riley selected IHS junior Emma Beer ’27 to represent New York’s Nineteenth District, which encompasses eleven counties across the Southern Tier and Hudson Valley, honoring a painting deeply rooted in memory and place.

    For the competition, Beer submitted an acrylic painting of her dog, a golden retriever named Molly, enjoying Cayuga Lake, which she originally painted for her Studio Art class last year. Beer explained that she created the piece for a class assignment to paint a portrait. At first, she was “struggling to pick something to paint,” but when she found the reference photo of Molly by the lake, she immediately knew it was the one. 

    For Beer, the painting is symbolic. Having grown up on Cayuga Lake her whole life, many of her fondest memories were tied both to the lake and to her dog who loves the water just as much as she does. “I love my dog; I love the lake,” she said, explaining that she wanted to make something to hang in her room that represented those memories. Riley echoed this sentiment, explaining in an Instagram post how the painting “perfectly encapsulates summer here in Upstate New York.”

    Beer first learned about the competition during a tour of the Capitol, when she walked through the hallway displaying the previous year’s winning artwork. Seeing the artwork displayed there inspired her to enter her own piece.

    Congressman Riley came to IHS on Friday, May 1 to present Beer with the award in person. Beer described how, at that point, she had submitted her artwork months ago in February and had mostly forgotten about it by the time he came to visit. She recalled Associate Principal Patrick Hovey calling her to the Welcome Center during lunch, leaving her worried she had somehow gotten into serious trouble. In the Welcome Center, waiting, were both of her parents, Hovey, and Associate Principal Scott Breigle. She was alarmed to see both associate principals with her parents, nervous that something had gone seriously wrong. Then, when her Studio Art teacher, Jesse Wright, walked in, everything immediately clicked. Soon after, Congressman Riley arrived to congratulate her and present her with the award.

    When speaking about her art, Beer emphasized the important role Wright played throughout the process of creating the piece. She explained that when she was struggling with the painting, “he was very encouraging […] and helped me through the process.” Beer shared that she originally took Studio Art simply to fulfill a required credit, but Wright helped her discover a genuine passion for art and taught her to “truly enjoy it.”

    Beer plans to visit Washington, DC this summer to tour the Capitol and see her artwork hanging there in person. She hopes her experience will encourage more IHS students to participate in the competition in the future and inspire them to submit artwork that reflects their own experiences, memories, and connections to home.