Début Regional High School Art Competition
Début
Début Regional High School Art Competition
Every spring, the Holland Area Arts Council presents Début, the High School Juried Art Exhibition. This student exhibit is a perfect illustration of the Arts Council’s mission to engage the community in the Arts, which will contribute to the cultural, educational and economic strength of the greater Holland Lakeshore area. By giving young people a significant experience in the arts we hope to instill in them both the joy and challenge art brings to our lives. Thirteen area high schools take part in this exciting exhibition including Allendale, Black River, Careerline Tech, Coopersville, Fennville, Grand Haven, Hamilton, Holland Christian, Holland, Jenison, Saugatuck, West Ottawa and Zeeland. Each art instructor may submit 16 works from their students. The Arts Council chooses a juror from the artistic community whose task is to choose 100 pieces for the exhibit. While this creates a tremendous amount of excitement around the show, it also injects the element of competition that exists in any juried exhibition. Over the years our jurors have been well respected artists, educators and connoisseurs of art. Often the Arts Council will mount an exhibition of the juror’s art work concurrently with Début,. This allows the students an opportunity to interact with and benefit from their juror’s experiences. In 2011 the Arts Council has enlisted a pair of jurors – Bill Holsinger-Robinson, Executive Director of ArtPrize and Brett Colley, Professor of Art at Grand Valley State University. In addition to jurying the exhibit Brett and Bill plan to lead a panel discussion for area high school and college students on “Art and the Popular Culture”. In view of the popularity of ArtPrize and the discussion that it has provoked, this is a very important topic for students pursuing an art career. Each year we have an incredible response from both the students who participate in the show and the visitors to the exhibition. The students truly put their best work forward for the exhibit. The works submitted by the students range widely in media – from the more traditional painting and charcoal to new genres, such as computer generated art and film. This breadth not only speaks to the expanse of ideas that art represents, but also speaks to the quality of instruction at our area high schools and the talent that is emerging within our community. We look forward to the annual awards reception when there is always a wonderful turnout of artists, parents, and friends enjoying the exhibition’s opening. As always, this promises to be quite an event! Beyond the reward of having their work exhibited several of the artists will be presented with awards during the opening. More significant than any of the prizes or the competition is the process of creating that all the artists share in and grow through! The Holland Arts Council is proud of the quality of programming we offer to the community. Art exhibition is an important means whereby the Holland Area Arts Council can showcase and share quality art with the community. Involving our area’s youth in our Début exhibition is the essence of our mission.
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