24th Annual Children's Art Festival set for February's first Friday

Arts Council of Southeast Missouri will celebrate the 24th Annual Children’s Arts Festival exhibition during the First Friday Art Walk from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, at 16B N. Spanish St. in Cape Girardeau.

According to a news release, this exhibit will feature visual and literary art pieces from more than 20 regional schools and will be on display throughout the month of February. This year, 19 art educators and more than 230 student artists will be honored at the artistic event.

The year’s judge for the Children’s Arts Festival will be Vickie Bean. Exhibits will be judged in a variety of categories and will be featured at Fine Arts Education Day at the Capitol Rotunda, in the offices of state Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder and Jason Bean, in Cape Girardeau’s City Hall Building, Scout Hall, DAEOC of Sikeston and more.

The release stated the event will include various entertainment throughout the night, including an appearance from Grumpy the Groundhog, live music by the students of Jake Tropf of Shivelbine’s Music Studio and dance performances by Fingerprint Urban Dance Studios under the direction of Michael “Crank” Curry.

Introduced in the year 2000, the Children’s Arts Festival was developed to showcase accomplishments of regional art educators and their students in third through eighth grades.

For those unable to attend the exhibition, 360-degree scans of the gallery will be available on the Arts Council’s website at www.capearts.org.

Anyone interested in sponsoring the exhibition may contact Arts Council director Kelly Downes at director@capearts.org.