The annual High School Art Competition opened this week in the Fain Fine Arts Center Foyer Gallery. The art show will be housed in the gallery from Jan. 29, until Feb. 3. The gallery consists of at least 250 pieces of artwork from different high schools in the surrounding area.
Steve Hilton, associate professor of art, stated in an email, “This is always an outstanding exhibition of artwork in a variety of media such as photography, drawing, prints, painting, ceramics, sculpture and mixed media.”
Students put a lot of hard work and hours into creating the pieces they enter into the competition.
Natalia Hernandez, Hirschi High School senior and one of last year’s first place winners, said, “It took me about 50 hours to paint my watercolor and about 20 for the pencil drawing that I entered.”
Not only do the students put in a lot of time and effort so does staff and student helpers from the art department. Carlos Aleman, exhibition preparator, and his student staff spend about three days to a week going through the artwork, checking it in and making sure the pieces are appropriate.
Aleman said, “We pretty much have to show everything, but there have been occasions where every once in a while you’ll have something that just isn’t appropriate.”
They spend about three days total setting up the gallery.
Aleman said, “We used what is called a salon style [to put together the show], where there’s not really a rhyme or reason on how it gets put up. We just put it up where it fits and how it fits. Of course you have a little bit of editing whenever you put up stuff like this, where some of the better pieces will get more centralized locations for viewing where we pretty much have to show everything. We try to do as much as we can when it comes to the kids having their work shown.”
For those interested in viewing the students artwork, the opening reception will be held in Fain Fine Arts Center Foyer Gallery on Saturday, Feb. 3 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cash awards and scholarships will be given out roughly around noon.
The gallery is also open during its regular hours, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Come out and show the high school students support.
