Cutchogue East Elementary School student Anthony Ammirati’s artwork was selected to participate in the 2025 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Fine Arts and Essay Exhibition, sponsored by the New York State Education Department.
Anthony’s artwork was one of the 1,000 pieces chosen for display out of the 2,208 submissions from 67 public and private schools statewide. “At first I thought everyone got selected,” Anthony said. “I didn’t really understand the concept of the competition, so it took me a few days to realize only a certain amount of people got accepted.”
He even discussed winning with his table neighbor, who was surprised when he showed her that he won. “The person I sit back to in school, she’s like, ‘can you imagine winning?’ Yeah, so that was fun. When I got chosen I showed it to her, and she’s like, ‘Oh, congratulations.’”
Anthony typically uses a reference to draw, looking at various pictures online until he finds one that suits his vision. This project was no exception. “What I do a lot is I find an image on Google, and then I print it out and I have it right next to me. It helps me a lot with inspiration,” he said.
Anthony wasn’t able to finish his submission during art class, so his teacher let him work on it during social studies. “I didn’t have enough time in my day to do it, so my my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Veer, she let me, I’m thanking her, because she let me finish it during social studies, even though it was art.”
Anthony was inspired after his conversation with art teacher Devon Costello, who discussed Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence and its relevance. “His entire message is more inclusive to me,” Anthony said. “I believe in being human. It should just be human.”