Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Visitors Choice and Virtual Visitors Choice Awards for Long Island’s Best 2025.
Maia Schnaider, Half Hollow Hills High School West, won the Visitors Choice Award, and Gabriella Vario, Sayville High School, was the winner of the Virtual Visitors Choice Award. More than 2,000 votes were cast this year by individuals visiting the Museum in person as well as online. Congratulations to both artists on this incredible achievement and thank you to everyone who voted!
Maia Schnaider’s Three Innocents, was inspired by Teresa Cromwell, Not All Who Are Different are Broken, from the exhibition The Body Politic: Long Island Biennial 2024 “In my piece, I aim to evoke a feeling of admiration for the natural world. The portrait depicts me and my twin brother holding a baby bunny, our laughter capturing the essence of unfiltered joy. As children, my siblings and I have constantly been surrounded by animals, especially the baby bunnies and chickens my grandpa would bring home,” noted Schnaider. “To emphasize this, I used colored pencils to create a blurry background with different shades of green, immersing the children in an atmosphere of curiosity and admiration for nature’s beauty.”
Gabriella Vario’s Trypophobia, was inspired by John Cino’s Mandorla, another Long Island Biennial artist. “My artwork is influenced by the discomfort I feel when confronted with certain topics and visuals, especially the idea of small, randomly placed holes. Through my art, I try to confront these emotions,” said Vario. “I unwrapped approximately sixty Starburst candies and molded them together. I re-heated pre-hardened Starbursts for about nine weeks. I used the back of a paint brush to create holes, snapped two paint brushes, and chipped the paint off another. Â I believe this process has helped me explore my discomfort with materials to create something visual that embodies how I feel.”
