In its first time ever submitting any work, the Westside arts departments won the NebraskArts Award Tuesday, Oct. 14 at the Nebraska Capitol building.

To win this award, drama instructor Jeremy Stoll had to submit a product showcasing Westside’s art. This submission included pieces from theater, instrumental and vocal music, media art, visual art, and creative writing.

“Putting the nomination together was kind of like our ‘Hey, let’s give it a shot. If we don’t win, we’ll try again next year,’” Stoll said.

For the submission, Stoll asked each of the arts departments in the school for photos of student work and performances and then asked for a list of all of the awards that students or faculty members in their department had received in the last year.

“Those were our two submissions,” Stoll said. “One was a photo slideshow and the other was a list of awards. The list came out to over 11 pages in really small font.”

The submission was sent in and Westside High School and York Public Schools were the two schools picked out of a multitude of applications to win this yearly award.

“It’s crazy how many awards and mentions that kids in the arts programs get,” Stoll said.”You just never hear about it. It’s incredible.”