I would love advice on how to have a great end-of-year art show that gets all middle school art students excited about attending and being a part of the event. This is my second year as an art teacher. Last year, the other art teacher and I had our advanced students each create their own black display boards presenting their best works. We also posted a large number of our regular art students' work on large sheets of black bulletin paper. The artworks were judged and cash awards were given in 7 categories (1st, 2nd 3rd, and also a Best in Show)during the evening of the show. We got good feedback and were fairly pleased with the turnout, but we want it to be even better this year. We normally have a good turnout of our advanced students, but it's our regular art students who normally do not attend. We would like to find a way to have our regular art students become more involved in the show - by submitting their favorite work or helping set
up - but it seems like such a daunting task with a combined total of 750 students, minimal wall space, and seeing them only once or twice a week for 45-minute periods. Any thoughts? And if there are other creative ideas regarding middle school art shows, I would greatly appreciate them. Thank you all so much.