I just got home from bringing my high school's entries into
our regional
scholastic art show that is held annually at the Mpls.
College of Art and
Design. Teachers and students are all keeping fingers
crossed that
works from what we submitted are accepted into the show at
the state
level and that some may even make it to national in NYC over
the
summer. We know it is a crap shoot as judges and the
criteria that they
bring with them varies from year to year. However, the
students' whose
work was selected (each teacher is limited to 10 pieces (not
new news
to the veterans out there), was at least at the level of
quality that the
teachers felt is was worthy of representing our school and
the artwork
that our students create.
Another example of a different show that is now in its 3rd
year....
The Minnesota State High School League is sponsoring the 3rd
annual
Visual Arts Event across the state this year, section by
section. I will be
running the event for our section again this year, which
will be held at
the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley (a
1st tier
suburb of Mpls.). They have a professional development
resource for
educators in the arts (all disciplines), and also have a
small arts high
school (300 student capacity), that is for juniors and
seniors that
provides a tuition free arts enriched education for talented
students that
wish to be immersed in the arts area of their choice. In
setting up the
event last year, I worked closely with the League which is
still learning
how ti host these events that are still in their relative
infancy across the
state. Each section is allowed to develop their own one day
event
based upon available resources. Our event went as follows:
a) All student work was to be delivered to the Center by 9
AM.
- work was limited to 10 pieces per school, with 2 pieces
per category
(5 categories are recognized by the League for the
purpose of the
show at the present time )
- each work was accompanied by an artist statement.
b) All work was hung / set out on display by 10 AM.
c) Judges met to discuss the assessment process and began
the
judging at 10 AM. Judges had 2 hours to discuss and
assess the
work, providing written feedback on each piece to the
students.
d) Students (and their parents and teachers) who attended
the the
event were plit into a series of art workshops that
were facilitated by
art faculty at the Center. The workshops consisted of:
painting /
drawing, digital imagery, printmaking, and art history.
The workshop
sessions ran 2 hours.
e) Lunch time ran from noon - 1 PM. Students could leave
campus for
lunch (a Subway sandwich shop was conveniently nearby),
or could
have brought their own. This was also a time for
students to view
the show.
f) Students had an opportunity to meet with judges from 1 PM
- 2 PM
g) Awards were presented in the auditorium at the Center
from 2 PM - 3
PM. Level of awards were presented as follows:
- each student who had their work on display at the
show received at
least a Certificate of Excellence that acknowledged
the level of
work on display and the selection process that it
already had gone
through to get to the exhibition.
- the next level up was a Superior Certificate for work
that was
considered to have been done at an even higher level.
A medal
from the MN State High School League also accompanied
this
certificate. Both certificates were signed by the
judges who had
awarded them and by myself as tournmament director.
- a Best of Show medal for each of the 5 categories was
also
awarded. Last year's medal was sponsored by US Bank.
This year,
Wells Farg will be sponsoring this award (and they are
promising to
make their medals even larger....commercial rivalry -
lol!)
Students brought their work home with them at the end of the
day. We
had 9 high schools and 42 works submitted to last year's
event and are
expecting an even bigger turn out this year.
I think that this has been a great model to work with and
highly
recommend it to any state that would like to take the visual
arts to a
more visible level than perhaps is presently the case if the
work is
remaining 'in the building' or the classroom. There is
consideration at
the moment for having a 2nd level competition at the state
level where
all of the section winners would have their works on display
and re-
assessed in that group for further recognition (much like
what takes
place in music education).
