Berkeley High Student Honored in Congressional Art Competition

student Tomer Ezra is flying to Washington, D.C., tomorrow to see his art installed at the U.S. capitol. Ezra’s photograph of a drummer and a young child, captured in a moment of synchronicity, was selected to represent Congressional District 9 in the Congressional Art Competition.

“The photo was really by chance that I was able to capture it,” said Ezra. In the photo, snapped in San Francisco near Pier 39, the boy’s hands are raised in the same attitude as a street musician nearby. “The parent of the child in the photo called him over the moment I took it, so I'm glad I captured the shot.”

Ezra’s photo was selected from among many artworks submitted by high school students throughout District 9, from Albany to Piedmont to Castro Valley. Every congressional district in the country can select one young artist to represent them at a ceremony in the nation’s capitol on June 22.

“I submitted my photo and it was chosen to go into the competition, and next thing I knew I had won first place,” Ezra said in an interview conducted over Facebook. “When I heard, I thought to myself that these things only happened in the movies!”

All the students in the district who submitted artwork to the competition were honored at a ceremony in May hosted by Congresswoman Barbara Lee at the Oakland Museum of California.

“I was not expecting the event to be as fancy as it was,” said Berkeley High student Haley MacDickerson, who attended the ceremony last month and was presented a certificate by Congresswoman Lee. “I really liked the white tent and the way in which the art was displayed.”

MacDickerson said she learned of the competition from her high school art teacher. “I participated because I thought it would be interesting to see how people liked my art, and I'm a huge fan of Barbara Lee,” she said. “I can't believe she was there and that I got to shake her hand!”

MacDickerson plans to pursue visual arts – in filmmaking – and will attend University of San Francisco in the fall, where she hopes to study set design.

As the first prize winner for all of District 9, Ezra will travel tomorrow with his mother on complimentary airline tickets from Southwest Airlines. His photograph will hang for one year in Washington, D.C.

Since its start in 1982, the competition estimates that over 650,000 high school student artists have participated.

This article was updated at 10:45 p.m.