Rockwall High student wins Congressional Art Contest, headed to U.S. Capitol

Rockwall High School student Savannah Ware has turned a local art contest into a national showcase: her piece, Liberty at 250, will be framed and displayed at the U.S. Capitol for about 11 months. The win gives Rockwall ISD a place in one of the country’s most visible student competitions and puts Ware’s work in front of visitors from across the nation.

Ware earned first place in the Congressional Art Contest, the official U.S. House art competition for high school students. Rockwall ISD said Southwest Airlines will provide two tickets for Ware’s winners’ celebration in Washington, D.C., a practical bonus for a student whose artwork is now headed far beyond North Texas. The celebration is scheduled for June 25, 2026, and typically draws about 1,000 constituents.

The Congressional Art Competition has been running since 1982, and more than 650,000 high school students have participated. More than 430 House members hold district contests each year, and each member may designate only one first-place winner for display. Under the 2026 rules, the district winner’s work goes on exhibit in the Capitol’s Cannon Tunnel alongside other winning pieces from around the country.

This year’s competition is co-chaired by Congresswoman Stephanie Bice and Congressman Joe Morelle, and the program is built as a bipartisan showcase of student art. For Ware, that means her work will not just represent Rockwall High School, but the broader Rockwall County community in a Capitol exhibition that connects local talent with a national audience.

The title Liberty at 250 also gives the win added resonance as the country moves toward its semiquincentennial. For Rockwall families, the honor offers a visible example of what can happen when students move beyond classroom assignments and into competition at the congressional level. Rockwall ISD has also pointed to other student-art milestones, including middle school artists advancing in the 2026 Texas VASE cycle, suggesting a visual-arts pipeline that reaches from younger grades into Rockwall High School.

Ware’s success is the kind of hometown achievement that is easy to understand and hard to match: a Rockwall student will have work displayed at the U.S. Capitol, framed among winners from across the United States, for nearly a full year.