The artistic talents of several young high school students have caught the eyes of contest judges Mayor Carrie Tergin, Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman and local artist Jim Dyke.
The Jefferson City Museum of Modern Art sponsored an art contest last month for ninth- through 12th-grade students in the Jefferson City and surrounding areas with the theme “Bring Us Together.”
“Jefferson City Museum of Modern Art is a free, educational museum dedicated to inspiring creativity, imagination and a lifelong connection with the arts,” museum docent Chris Duren said in an email.
The museum held a special exhibit Oct. 3 for the community to view finalist submissions the night before judging. The works of art ranged from computer animations and vibrant paintings to delicate pencil drawings.
The trio of judges gathered together Oct. 4 at the museum and combined thoughts on their favorite pieces to pick the first- and second-place winner, as well as four honorable mentions.
“As far as the theme goes, I think all around the world,” Bushman said during judging.
“To me, I applaud Magdalena because there’s a lot of thought that went into that and there’s a lot of work that went into that,” he said about Magdalena Hilty’s piece “interwoven,” which depicted women of different races drawn in colored pencil and connected together by thread and woven pieces of fabric.
“I like that one, because it’s so straight to the point with all the flags,” Dyke said of Cora Walsh’s piece “All Around the World,” which depicted Earth behind a large flag made by combining multiple nation’s flags. “None of us really know exactly what they meant but we do get the point so that’s cool.”
Drawn toward a colorful vertical painting by Meghan Maples called “Cultural Indifferences,” Mayor Carrie Tergin said, “I think when you look at it, it can be around the corner. Like Jim mentioned, it has kind of a treehouse look. Well, it can be a house here or anywhere in the world, and when you see the pink tree, you automatically think of the cherry blossoms over across the world or you think of the trees we have in front of the Capitol or in Washington D.C. … What I liked about it is you can interpret it and all the different colors and faces, and … all different cultures really.”
Tergin later said she thought the student artists all captured the theme very well in different ways.
“The togetherness, the interwoveness is really part of every single one, whether it’s the infinity (by Taryn Fennessey) or whether it’s the woven (by Magdalena Hilty) or whether it’s the flag as one (by Cora Walsh) they all have that,” she said about the top picks.
After much deliberation, judges decided upon “All Around the World” by Walsh as the competitions first-place winner, “Interwoven” by Hilty for second place, and “Many Eyes, One Vision” by Lauren Holsapple, “Cultural Indifferences” by Maples, “United in Infinity” by Taryn Fennessey and an untitled piece (We Come Together) by Regan Vickery as honorable mentions.
Prizes included were $500 for first place, $200 for second place and $100 for each honorable mention artist.
This is the first year the Jefferson City Museum of Modern Art has sponsored student art contests and plans to hold its second middle school art contest in spring 2019.
For more information on upcoming contests and photos of submitted artwork, visit the Jefferson City Museum of Modern Art Facebook page at facebook.com/JeffersonCityMOMA.