TOP PICKS OF STUDENT ART WILL MOVE ON TO OLYMPIA

By susan lagsdin

This year’s 44th Annual Regional High School Art Show, hosted by the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center, yielded a total of 208 separate art pieces from North Central Washington students. Of those, four local judges chose just 15 to send on to Olympia for another statewide round of competition.

Washington’s top high school artists have in the past been recognized by the State Office of Public Instruction at the old Capitol building. But this summer, those 15 statewide winners will, for the first time, be honored at a celebratory public event at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall.

These NCW high school students are the ones whose works, called “Best of Show,” will compete with students statewide. From Bridgeport: Freddy Parbol. From Cascade: Isabel Bentsen and Lauren Haiduc. From Cashmere: Mykla Smith, Aztlan Oropeza-Garcia, Jayden Anderson, Leandro LopezRosario, and Stevie Garrison. From Okanogan: Lilianna Tixta. From Oroville: Anthony Herrick. From Wenatchee: Jesus Gonzalez Gutierrez, Anna Hirsch, and Wyatt Lester. From Tonasket: Maria Timm and Noemie Guillou.

But those aren’t the only student exhibitors to win praise. Judges also awarded Honorable Mention to several others, and the show’s curator Kasey Koski carefully tallies the People’s Choice ballots, the votes of viewers who walk through the Museum’s extensive exhibit. Additionally, judge Gregg Schlanger of Central Washington University’s art department gave tuition waivers to eight promising artists.

Every fall, students in high school art departments throughout Washington submit pieces for judging within their separate Educational Services Districts. “For 2023 we decided to judge them the way other districts do and just go for excellence – with no separate awards for medium or genre,” said Koski. “The overall criteria were creativity, technical skill and composition.”

“Fourteen of our regional high schools participated, and we were happy to have the numbers at pre-pandemic levels again,” Koski said. She hopes that next year even more art teachers throughout the ESD will encourage students to show their work.

You can see the last day of the Regional High School Show at the WVMCC on the First Fridays Arts Walk, April 7admission is free.