Area students exhibit artwork at annual show

Artwork from 16 area schools was on display Sunday at the 34th annual High School Art Exhibition in the Crisp Museum at Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

The exhibit showcases art by junior and senior high school students created during the academic school year.

Sixteen area schools submitted 210 pieces of work for consideration in the show. Of those, 109 were selected by Terence Thomure to be exhibited. Thomure won the Missouri Art Education Association's Art Educator of the Year Award in 2004.

The exhibited pieces were then judged by Thomure in eight categories: ceramics, drawing, fibers, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and mixed media. Of the 40 awards given, Cape Girardeau Central High School students won 10. And of the eight first place awards, Central students took home four.

Awards were also given for best in show and the Art Academy Award.

This year's best in show winner was nearly scrapped instead of submitted.

"I had trouble getting the blue right and almost didn't show that one," said Brooke Baugher, a senior at Central High School.

Baugher said the piece, a triptych -- three related but separately framed images hung together -- of butterfly wings took her about five weeks to complete. But the effort was worth it, the Best in Show award came with a $1,000 scholarship to Southeast.

Ashley Cusick, a junior at Cape Girardeau Central High School, won five awards: three first places, an honorable mention, and the Art Academy Award. Winning the Art Academy Award means she'll be able to create a brand new piece of art that will be photographed and featured on the poster for the 2013 High School Art Exhibit poster.

Cusick said she isn't sure what career path she'll take, but knows it will be something to do with art and plans to attend the Kansas City Art Institute after she graduates from high school.

"I've thought about being an art teacher, but I'm just not sure yet," she said. "I want to study all aspects of art, to learn about all the different arts I can work in. I want to express feeling with art."

Organizing next year's exhibit is already underway.

"Next month we'll start looking for a juror for next year's show," said Carol Horst, chairwoman of the High School Art Exhibit and an art education instructor in the Department of Art at Southeast. "[We look for] someone who's not from this area so they will be unbiased, and who's taught high school art and can appreciate and understand how rigorously the teachers and students work in such a little amount of time."

The art will be on display through March 11.

Pertinent address:

518 South Fountain Street, Cape Girardeau, Mo.