A Lamar School ninth grader, Rachel Varela, won the Meridian Council for the Arts contest built around "To Kill A Mockingbird."

The Temple Theatre showed the classic movie Tuesday. The MSU Riley Center also recently hosted a live stage performance of the play.

Students were encouraged to read the book and enter art work inspired by it.

"It's a novel. And I read it and I heard about the contest and it happens to be one of my favorite books," Varela said.

"Especially are we excited that we could uplift the youth of our community and bring them together under a like mind about literary arts and visual arts," said Anne McKee of the Meridian Council for the Arts.

The youth art competition was open to all students in Lauderdale County.