Local students compete for prizes in the Studio Art Auction
Some students prefer drawing animals to raising them, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo supports their efforts as well.
The School Art Program has many facets, but this time of the year, all eyes are on the works chosen to compete in the Student Art Auction and hang in the Hayloft Gallery at NRG Center. A massive effort at schools across the region, the competition has logged 9.8 million entries since 1965. About 200,000 students entered this year from 101 public districts and 53 private schools.
Their teachers sent 3,417 artworks to the judges, who awarded 852 Best of Show, Gold Medal or Special Merit awards. The Grand Prix judges will select just 72 for the Student Art Auction.
The auction winners can earn more than many professional artists for a single piece. All take home something for their efforts, ranging from the $1,500 minimum for a place winner to a maximum of $38,000 for the Grand Champion. The artwork is divided into seven categories: colored drawing, mixed media, monochromatic, painting, 3D (all for high school-age students), elementary and junior high.
Winners help other students in the process. Last year’s Grand Champion artwork — Hector Maldonado’s “After the Storm Comes a Calm” — fetched a record $240,000, the bulk of which supported scholarships and grants from the Rodeo’s Educational Fund. Maldonado’s exceptionally detailed colored drawing depicts the back side of a cowboy, in colorful chaps, sitting atop a holding pen, presumably after he has finished a competition.
Realism rules in these artworks, which can range from close-ups of animals to contemporary rodeo scenes with landscape elements, historical subjects and images that convey the romance or hardscrabble sensibility of Western culture.
Leading up to the auction, students may compete in district shows, earn scholarships and travel to summer workshops. Schools also have a chance to receive a Super Show award for their outstanding participation.
High school students have a new opportunity this year — a graphic design poster competition that will help promote the School Art Program. The top 10 designers will win cash awards, and the winning poster will be printed and distributed to schools to hang in classrooms.