PEA RIDGE — Artists from Pea Ridge Primary School dominated the competition as results were announced at the Northwest Regional Art Show in Fayetteville recently. Six students were selected for honors, the most of any school in northwest Arkansas.
“As is always the case,” local art teacher John McGee said, “the hardest part of this competition was determining which students’ art work to enter. This is my third year to be a part of the competition and we have won at least three awards every year.
The amazing thing is thatit has been with different kids every year and there are other kids I could have entered who probably would have won an award, but I am limited to just seven entries. Fortunately, the next three competitions we will be involved with don’t have limits onhow many I may enter.
“I was asked recently by a teacher from another school regarding how we managed to do so well in competitions and I said it was a combination of student talent and effort,parental and community support, and the great facilities we have for an art program especially in the primary school.”
McGee said: “Our web site has had nearly 200,000 visitors since its inception two years ago and we rank in the top 10 nationally in parental involvement.”
In the kindergarten through second-grade categories, local artists won five of the nine awards presented, winning first place in each grade as well. One other student, fourth-grader KashaniaMartinez, took an additional first place award to give Pea Ridge six total awards, besting last years’ school record total of five. Martinez painted a picture of a barn and tractor.
Kindergarten Jessica Gibson’s watercolor and marker drawing of the city of Venice took took top honors in her grade with Tanner Grant’s pastel still-life picture taking the runner-up honors in the same grade. Among first graders, Mason Murillo’s crayon and watercolor picture of a football player running upfield was voted first while Elijah Austin’s acrylic painting of a bear in the woods garnered third place.
Rounding out the honorees was Dillon Brouse’s second-grade winning oil pastel entry. Brouse’s work was done with oil pastel on black paper depicting two men around a table in a darkened room.
Pea Ridge’s total of four individual champions this year doubled the school record of two that was set last year. Then eighthgrader Katie Nunley and first-grader Jake Ingram won individual first places in 2010, the first Pea Ridge students to win top regional honors.
All award winners are to honored at a reception at the Fayetteville Public Library at 2 p.m. Feb. 26, preceded by a mixer at 1 p.m. There continuesto be a public viewing of all the winning artwork along with the honorable mention artwork. The artworks are available for viewing during normal library hours with the younger artist work on display on the first floor of the Fayetteville Public Library on Mountain Street.
The individual grade winners will be recognized at an awards reception at 2 p.m. May 14 at the Arkansas Studies Institute building on Clinton Avenue, downtown Little Rock.
After the reception, the artwork will be placed on display in downtown Little Rock for the remainder of the spring and summer.
In addition, the art work will be displayed on the Arkansas Department of Education’s web site untilnext year.
The Northwest Arkansas Regional Competition was open to 10 counties with over 200 schools eligible. There will be six regions represented in the Little Rock exhibit with 78 artworks, a sizeable portion of them produced in Pea Ridge.
Anyone wishing to view the artwork on line can log onto www.artsonia.com/ pearidge2 and click the appropriate link.
School, Pages 9 on 02/16/2011