Reflections Overview For Families and Students

Welcome to the WSPTA Reflections program!

Reflections is a National PTA arts recognition program that helps students explore their own thoughts, feelings, and ideas, develop artistic literacy, increase confidence, and find a love for learning that will help them become more successful not only in school but in life.

Students in pre-K through grade 12 create original works of art in response to a theme.

The theme for the 2023-2024 program will be “I am Hopeful Because…”

Students submit their completed works of art in one or more of the available arts categories: Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Music Composition, Photography, Visual Arts.

While the primary focus of Reflections is a celebration of creativity through positive recognition, finalists from local PTAs will move on to their council PTA (if applicable), then finalists from councils will move on to the state round. Washington State PTA finalists who receive an “Outstanding Interpretation” award will advance to the National PTA round.

The deadline for turning in artwork to your local PTA will typically be in late autumn. Local PTAs and councils can choose to accept physical entries or virtual. Only virtual submissions will be sent to the WSPTA level for judging.

Click HERE to go to the reflections homepage where you can download forms, find out more information, and get inspiration. 

Young artists get involved through their local PTA or PTSA. A student may submit an entry in any of six arts areas. Only original works of art are accepted.

The six art areas are:

Literature – works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, prose, drama, short stories and lyrics.

Music Composition – original musical composition, with or without words.

Photography: color or black and white, included techniques: photogram, negative sandwich, and multiple exposure.

Visual Arts: drawing, painting in tempera, oil, acrylic, watercolor & t-shirt paints, computer generated art, two-dimensional collage, printmaking, needlework & leather tooling.

Film/Video: original works, with or without sound, of animation, narrative, documentary, experimental or music video/film.

Choreography/Dance: originally choreographed dance composition.

Participation is organized by student age and grade levels. Student works are critiqued against others in the same grade division. This allows recognition and judging of artworks by appropriate developmental age and skill levels.

The grade divisions are:
Primary: Preschool – Grade 2
Intermediate: Grades 3 – 5
Middle School: Grades 6 – 8
High School: Grades 9 – 12

Entries are judged on creative ability and interpretation of the theme.

For more information, follow this link to the Washington State PTA Reflections page.