An image of four students posing together.

Dozens of Shaker Students Participate in SPAC Festival of Young Artists

North Colonie Communications

June 17, 2025

Dozens of Shaker High School students artists showed off their work at the annual SPAC Festival of Young Artists earlier this month. The festival, which celebrates hundreds of the Capital Region’s brightest visual artists, musicians, singers, poets, dancers and more, took place on Sunday, June 1.  

The works of nine students were selected to be displayed in the Visual Arts category. This year, SPAC purchased 10 student pieces and four of those were created by artists from Shaker High School. Four students had their writing selected in the category of Literary Art, including Gianna Zhang, who was the Outstanding Artist Award Winner. Hasini Gajendran participated in the Performing Arts category while 11 others participated in the Festival of Young Artists by performing as part of the Empire State Youth Orchestra. Below is a full list of participants from Shaker.

Visual Art

Samaita Ahmed, Grade 12, Which Path? – Digital Photography and Digital Painting

A digital photography and digital painting of a path that leads toward an eye.

Harika Byraju, Grade 11, School of Fish – Watercolor, Ink

A watercolor painting with goldfish, people , books and other items.

Hans Gupta, Grade 12, Ensnared – Digital Photo of Acrylic Painting

A digital photo of acrylic painting of a student sitting at a desk with papers flying around the classroom.

Andrew Iannacone, Grade 9, Self Portrait – Charcoal

A charcoal self-portrait of a student.

Lydia Lin, Grade 11, Stargazing – Acrylic on Canvas

An acrylic painting on canvas of a purple balloon in the shape of a star.

Caitlin McKinney, Grade 11, Tranquility – Acrylic on Canvas

An acrylic painting on canvas of a person floating face up in a body of water.

Negina Nabi, Grade 10, Who am I? – Digital Photo

A photograph of a profile of a person's face looking up and lit red in an otherwise dark room.

Ava Rhatigan, Grade 10, Knotted – Colored Pencil

A colored pencil artwork of two hands tying a ballet slipper around a foot.

Shreya Sharath, Grade 10, Adbutham – Acrylic

An acrylic work of art with groovy orange and yellow design around a figure holding fire.

Literary Art

  • Gianna Zhang, Grade 9, Outstanding Artist Award Winner

  • Sneha Sinha, Grade 11

  • Nawaf Kassem, Grade 11

  • Priya Billa, Grade 11

An image of four students posing together.

Performing Arts

  • Hasini Gajendran, Grade 10

Empire State Youth Orchestra

  • Austin Cao, Viola, Grade 11

  • Alexander King, Double Bass, Grade 9

  • Everest Kuang, Violin, Grade 12

  • Jay Lee, Double Bass, Grade 11

  • Lauren Lee-Chung, Violin, Grade 10

  • Gio Ok, Cello, Grade 10

  • Selena Tang, Violin, Grade 12

  • Graeme Teal, Viola, Grade 12

  • Emily Tribou, Violin, Grade 9

  • Emily Yang, Violin, Grade 11

  • Bowen Yu, Viola, Grade 12