For more than 70 years, Symphony in Color has reached thousands of Indiana students annually.

For this year’s contest, children in grades one through six listened to selected symphonic music, and then created their own visual interpretations of what they heard.

Volunteers from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Association administered the competition. Prior to exhibition at the Indiana State Museum, the artwork of the 36 gold ribbon winners was on display in the Oval Promenade Gallery of the Hilbert Circle Theatre, home of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

March 20 through April 27, 2025

This artwork can be seen on the Thomas A. King Bridge Gallery and is included with the purchase of museum admission.

Purchase admission

Two contestants and one school win special awards

Zoe Leggins, a fifth grader from CSA Lincoln Elementary School in Columbus, earned this year’s Renato Pacini Award as the creator of the overall winning artwork. The music of Florence Beatrice Price’s Piano Concerto in D Minor inspired her artwork.

Hazel Frankhauser, a fourth grader from CSA Lincoln Elementary School in Columbus, won the People’s Choice Award by the voting public at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Association’s annual event. Her artwork was inspired by Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 17.

 

Teachers Elen Costa from Fortune Academy in Indianapolis and Jill Baker from Park Elementary School in Fairmount received the Maestro Award for having the most finalists.

Judges

  • Wyatt LeGrand

    Wyatt is an oil painter and teacher of the visual arts in his hometown of Bloomfield. LeGrand’s work has been exhibited nationwide, recognized by the Oil Painters of America and American Impressionist Society, and acknowledged by Southwest Art Magazine in their annual “21 under 31” feature. He has received Best of Show and first-place awards from numerous organizations including Indiana Plein Air Painters, Brown County Art Guild, Indiana Artists Club, Indiana Heritage Arts and the Hoosier Art Salon.

  • Pamela C. Newell

    Newell is an award-winning still life and landscape painter. She received her BFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and later continued her studies at the Indianapolis Art Center where she trained privately with several notable artists. Her work has been recognized in national and regional juried competitions and exhibitions including the Hoosier Art Salon, Indiana Heritage Arts, Indiana Artists Club, Richmond Art Museum and Cincinnati ViewPoint. Newell exhibited in a collaborative solo show with the Smithsonian Institute at the Sullivan Munce Cultural Center in Zionsville. Her work is found in many private and corporate collections.

  • John Seest

    Seest is an engineer and principal in the structural engineering firm of ARSEE Engineers. He is active in visual and performing arts organizations including The Portfolio Club in Indianapolis, International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Dans Norden (Scandinavian dance), Skandilocity (Scandinavian music), the American Guild of Organists, Echoing Air, and the Central Indiana Folk Music Society. He hosts a variety of musical events in his Indianapolis home.

  • Donna Shortt

    Shortt is a landscape and still-life painter. Her artwork is part of the permanent collections of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, and the Richmond Art Museum. Several of her plein-air paintings were included in the 2013 publication, “Painting Indiana III: Dignity of Place.” She received the Outstanding Pastel award in the 2014 Hoosier Art Salon annual exhibit. Her work can be found at the Brown County Art Guild, Nashville, Castle Gallery of Fine Art, Fort Wayne, and Gallery Two, Indianapolis.

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