The opening reception and awards ceremony of the Sioux City Art Center’s 34th Annual Youth Art Month Exhibition was great! I enjoyed getting to meet some of the artists and seeing their family and friends celebrate their accomplishments. If you’re in the area and haven’t yet checked it out, it is open through April 9, 2023.
Here’s some local press coverage which also highlights my role as the juror:
The Le Mars Daily Sentinel published “Local Students Exhibit in Juried Art Show” on March 17, 2023.
The Sioux City Journal published “Youth Art Exhibit Highlights Talent of Middle School Students” on March 12, 2023.
KSCJ published “Youth Art Exhibition Opens at SC Art Center” including an embedded radio interview with education coordinator Kim Albracht on February 24, 2023.
The Sioux City Journal’s Weekender published “Sux 6: The Best Things to Do in Siouxland” highlighting the show as #3 Artistic Life: The Early Years on February 23, 2023.
My juror statement, printed in the show brochure:
It was a pleasure to jury the Sioux City Art Center's 34th Annual Youth Art Month Exhibition. Making artwork is a hallmark of the human experience; it is personal expression through creative risk-taking and problem-solving. Youth arts education has been linked to students' increased civic engagement, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, innovation, interdisciplinary synthesis, and motor skills. As viewers, I hope that - as I did - you see pieces in this show that bring you joy, challenge you, expand your horizons, and teach you something new.
To the artists: thank you for sharing your time and talent! Whether your work made it into this show or not, please continue to create and share your art; every piece has its own voice and power. In fact, the quality of submissions was so high that it was very hard to narrow them down to the pieces I eventually selected for display. I prioritized choosing a diversity of subject matter, art media, and techniques in 2D, relief, and 3D. I'm very excited to see the exhibition professionally installed, and I hope you are too!