A work by Hartland High School grad Breanna Zaborowski is now showcased at the Lowell Milken Family Foundation’s permanent, 3,000-square-foot ARTEFFECT Gallery on the fifth floor of the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream (MCAAD) in Washington, D.C., just steps from the White House.
Her work is part of a permanent ARTEFFECT exhibition that includes visual artworks, text panels, and short films celebrating the inspiring stories of unsung heroes from history.
Zaborowski’s work, “A Triple Threat” — a watercolor, acrylic, ink, paper collage, pastel — honors Florence Kelley, who dedicated her life to improving working conditions, fighting child labor, and promoting workers rights. As High School Best in Show for 2023, her piece won a $3,000 prize.
Founded by Lowell Milken in 2016, ARTEFFECT fosters reflection on the invaluable contributions of these Unsung Heroes through the creation of original visual art. ARTEFFECT offerings include an annual international art competition for middle and secondary school students, museum exhibitions, and the ARTEFFECT Ambassadors program — a prestigious visual arts fellowship for educators, online professional development sessions, and educational resources for championing the stories of Unsung Heroes through the visual arts.
“Celebrating the qualities of character embodied in the Unsung Heroes motivates younger generations to aspire to values essential during the challenging times we face as a nation and as a worldwide community,” Milken said. “ARTEFFECT provides powerful opportunities to promote these values to students in schools.”
Zaborowski, a current student in the Stamp School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, has won other art competitions. Her piece “The Lute” won second place in the 2023 Congressional High School Art Competition, and hung inside then-U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s office in Washington, D.C. And last year, her piece “Our Fan Family” won $5,000 and four Detroit Red Wings tickets in the Red Wings Fandom Fusion Art Contest; her piece was on display at the Rehmann Club at Little Caesar’s Arena in downtown Detroit.
