Congressman Rick Crawford announces Congressional Art Competition Winner

Jonesboro, AR — Today, Congressman Rick Crawford (AR-01) announced the winners of the 2026 Congressional Art Competition. Each year Congressman Crawford holds a student art competition across the district for high school students as a part of an effort to recognize and encourage artistic talent across our nation. The student chosen as the overall winner has their artwork displayed in Washington D.C. for a year. 

This year, Sophie Vanlandingham was selected the Best in Show of this year’s competition. She attends Norfork High School under the art instruction of Keela Olson. Ms. Vanlandingham’s winning artwork entitled “Cowboy Collection” is an oil painting on canvas that portrays a pair of colorful cowboy boots in front of a deep blue background. 

Her artwork will be displayed in the Cannon Hall in Washington D.C. with the other winners from across the country. She will also receive two Southwest Airlines’ vouchers to attend the Congressional Art reception this summer in Washington, D.C.

This year’s judges, Jayson Mirafuentes of Jonesboro and Paige Branham, Art Instructor at UA-EACC, reviewed over 240 artwork submissions representing 29 schools across the First Congressional district. The competition is divided into seven categories, based on medium, and the first-place winners of each category were recognized by Congressman Crawford at a reception in Jonesboro. 

“This art competition is one of my favorite things my office does,” said Crawford. “I am always amazed at how the students’ artwork reflects what is going on in our Nation.” 

The first-place winners of each category, the Best in Show, and the People’s Choice winner are currently on display in the Craighead County Courthouse Annex Building.

The other first-place category winners include the following mediums: Collage, Audrey Crumpton, Cabot High School; Digital, Denaya Horton, West Memphis High School; Drawing, Jovee Webster, Norfork High School; Mixed Media, Sophia Cook, Flippin High School; Photography, Rylan Mutchler, Norfork High School; Print, Emily Sharp, Norfork High School; People’s Choice, Sicily Mars, Trumann High School.

Since the competition began in 1982, more than 750,000 high school students have participated. This is the 15th year Congressman Crawford’s office has participated in this Competition.