The Blue Whole Gallery announced in early June that two Sequim High School student artists are their 2024 scholarship winners.

The judging committee named Madison White as the $500 Shirley Foss Memorial Scholarship winner. White is a Sequim High School senior and part of the graduating class of 2024. She plans to attend Peninsula College in the fall and pursue her dream of becoming a Digital Graphics Designer.

The annual award honors the life of Shirley Foss, one of the original members of the gallery when it opened in 1997 and is designed to help students who wish to pursue a career in the visual arts.

White said she has loved drawing, and particularly digital graphics, for years. Last year she landed an internship at Lobo Design, where she had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects ranging from designing online newspaper and magazine advertising to building websites.

Her yearbook advisor Jim Heintz, wrote in his recommendation that she been recognized for her drawings for the Sequim Irrigation Festival buttons, her idea for the cover of a yearbook and the selection of her art for several Sequim postcards.

According to her world languages teacher, Sonja Miller, White has been very involved in her community. As two-year American Sign Language student, she volunteers in the Helen Haller Sign Language Club. For the past seven years she has picked up bags of canned food with her mother for the USPS food drive. She also works with her family to decorate the graves of war veterans on Memorial Day.

White said she is looking forward to a future helping others with their graphic design needs in the Olympic Peninsula area.

The $500 Kate Loveland Memorial Scholarship was awarded by the Blue Whole Gallery judging committee to Anne Marie Barni, a senior at Sequim High School and part of the 2024 graduating class.

This scholarship was established at the Blue Whole Gallery to celebrate the creativity of young people in memory of Kate Loveland, one of the gallery’s long-time artist members.

Barni moved to Sequim in 2021 from Bothell to be closer to her grandmother. That same year she was selected to represent the Blue Whole Gallery and mark the student artist program’s comeback for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Barni said she enjoys working with watercolors to create poster-style work but says she has always been interested in animation.

“Over the course of my life, I’ve always wanted to work as an animator and someday pitch my own ideas to a major studio,” she said.

Barni is highly regarded by her teachers who share that she is a powerful leader, a gifted academic and talented artist, gallery representatives said. She has been an ASB elected officer, helped launch the local Squatchcon Student Artist program, was part of the 2023 Sequim Irrigation Festival royalty and won the Congeniality Award.

In addition, Barni’s devotion to community service awarded her a Sequim High School varsity letter for 145 hours of community service.

“Today I see the world for what I can offer it, dedicating myself to community service and whatever new adventure awaits,” Barni wrote.

She has been accepted to the Cornish School of the Arts and hopes to pursue a degree in character design and animation studies.