Area students show works in exhibition

Evelyn Cox, a kindergartner in the Calico Rock Public Schools, shows the honorable-mention award she received for her entry in the 57th Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center. A facsimile of her artwork, Brown Bear, is featured on her name tag.
Evelyn Cox, a kindergartner in the Calico Rock Public Schools, shows the honorable-mention award she received for her entry in the 57th Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center. A facsimile of her artwork, Brown Bear, is featured on her name tag.

— Several young artists from the Three Rivers Edition coverage area have their work on display in the 57th Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center.

The show will be on display through July 22 in the Alice Pratt Brown Atrium and the Sam Strauss Sr. Gallery. There is no admission charge.

The annual exhibit celebrates the creative achievements of young artists from kindergarten through the 12th grade.

“We strive to promote quality arts-education initiatives and achievement in the visual arts,” said Todd Herman, Arkansas Arts Center executive director. “Through the Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition, we are offering a platform to celebrate artwork created by young Arkansans while empowering them to express themselves in a positive way.”

This year, 492 works in a variety of media were entered by 142 teachers or instructors from throughout the state. The show includes 104 works of art, representing 63 schools in 31 cities. From those works, one Best in Class and two honorable-mention awards were chosen for each grade by Michael Shaeffer, a Little Rock-based artist. Shaeffer also selected recipients of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists Award for Achievement in Watercolor and the Ray Smenner Award for Achievement in Painting. Members of the Arkansas Art Educators Association also selected one Teacher’s Choice award from each grade level.

Each winning artist’s school receives a monetary award to support the school’s art program. Selected works from the exhibition will travel to schools and other venues around the state as part of the Arkansas Arts Center’s Statewide ArtsReach Programs.

Local students with works in the show and their respective schools include the following:

Beebe High School, Beebe

• Tenth-grader Izabel McCane received a Best of Class award for a graphite work, Woman.

Beebe Junior High School, Beebe

• Eighth-grader Halle Hardin received a Best of Class award with a Prismacolor piece, Conceptualize.

Cabot High School, Cabot

• Tenth-grader Jaden Hendrix received an Arkansas Art Educators Teacher’s Choice award for a black-and-white charcoal, Reflections.

• Twelfth-grader Chloe Smith received an Arkansas Art Educators Teacher’s Choice award for a charcoal and pastel piece, What Life Reveals.

Cabot Junior High School South, Cabot

• Seventh-grader Brooke Dumas has an untitled graphite piece in the exhibit.

Calico Rock Public Schools, Calico Rock

• Kindergartner Evelyn Cox received an honorable-mention award with a collage she created with markers and oil pastels, Brown Bear.

CD Creative Studio, Cabot

• Third-grader Emmalee McDaniel has a cut-paper creation, Choowe, in the show.

• Eighth-grader Jackson Jolley’s work, Blowing Off Steam, photo and pen and ink, was accepted in the exhibit.

Highland Middle School, Highland

• Eighth-grader Michelle Flowers received an honorable-mention award and the Ray Smenner Award for Achievement in Painting for an acrylic, Veil of Shadows.

Highland High School, Highland

• Ninth-grader Tara Rock’s ceramic work, Whistling Elephant, is on display.

Riverview High School, Searcy

• Tenth-grader Lorena Sandoval received an honorable-mention award for an acrylic on chipboard, Nature of Life and Death.

The Arkansas Arts Center is at Ninth and Commerce streets in Little Rock. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. The center is closed on Mondays and major holidays.

For more information, call (501) 372-4000 or visit www.arkarts.com.

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