RECORD NUMBER OF STUDENTS ENTER SEMO HIGH SCHOOL ART SYMPOSIUM

This year's judge for the 19th Annual High School Art Symposium at Southeast Missouri State University had a daunting task. Bill Needle, a professor emeritus at Southeast, was asked to pick the usual 70 to 80 finalists from a record 606 entries for the exhibition.

"He finally said there was no way he could whittle it down that far," Cape Girardeau Central High School art teacher Robert Friedrich said. "So we ended up with more than 100 entries."

Cape Girardeau Central's art program was well represented this year with its students placing in five of the seven divisions (see related story).

"A lot of our art students are not the run-of-the-mill," Friedrich said. "A lot of them don't play sports and for a lot of them art is one of their main things. This show motivates them, gives them some self confidence and makes them feel like they're doing something important.

"Most of the time they don't really care about winning the award but just showing what they have made."

The response to this year's symposium was so great that Friedrich is planning to exhibit more than 30 of his student's pieces that did not make it into this show. That exhibit will go up at Barnes &Noble bookstore in Cape Girardeau in about two weeks.

It is not only the size of the show that has changed over the years, symposium coordinator Dr. Edwin Smith said. "The artwork has improved drastically," he said. "It is really high-quality work coming from high school students."

"Our whole purpose in having the show is to give these students recognition and to try to recognize excellence in the visual arts," Smith said. "We also use this as a recruitment tool for our Department of Art at Southeast."

The crowd on hand at the symposium was about average size for the exhibit, University Museum Director Jenny Strayer said.

"There's usually about 200 people for this event and I think we're about at that level here today," Strayer said. "It helps more students in the area become familiar with the facilities here. Both in the museum and it's attractions and the studio space that's available."

While the director, teachers and coordinator talked about their excitement with the exhibit, the artists themselves were taking it in stride.

"It's neat having everybody looking at it and admiring it I guess," said Justin Weaver, a Cape Central senior who took first place in the sculpture category. "You want to see what else you can do; see if maybe you can get something else out that looks good."

Weaver, whose design was also chosen for this year's symposium poster, said he'd like to pursue a career in graphic arts. Laura Lueders, another Cape Central senior who's work was on display, said she probably won't pursue art as a career.

"I'm interested in other things," she said, adding that she didn't expect to win an award when she submitted her photographs and water color paintings.

"I didn't do it for them, I did it for myself. This was my last chance to make it into the exhibit, being a senior, and I'm excited that it did happen."