Four students claim state art awards
Four Pea Ridge art students were among the winners as announced by the Arkansas State Department of Conservation recently.
Three Pea Ridge students were declared best in their grade with another student earning a second-place finish.
Fourth-grader Collin Little was the winner of the fourth-grade competition with his oil pastel of a blue jay. Collin was a first-place winner last year with his oil of a mockingbird and was also a second-place winner in 2016 with his oil pastel of a songbird. Little is the first Pea Ridge student to win three times in this state competition.
Pea Ridge Intermediate also finished first and second in the third-grade competition with Cash Schroeder winning with his painting of a bird and freshly hatched chicks, with Ava Gann receiving the runnerup award with her oil pastel of an owl.
Kindergartner Elijah Smith was the champion in the kindergarten division with his oil pastel of a cardinal.
Little, Schroeder and Gann are regular art students of John McGee, Intermediate School art teacher, and Smith was an after school student of McGee.
The first-place winners will receive $100 and a trophy at the annual Art Awards in Little Rock on May 3. Second-place recipients receive $50 and a certificate. The awards will be presented in ceremonies at the Witt Stephens Conservation Center in downtown Little Rock by the Arkansas River.
All four students will have their art appear in the official Arkansas state calendar for 2020. The current 2019 state calendar has the art from winners of the 2018 contest which included intermediate first-place winners Collin Little, Kayden Fowler and Lynden Osborne. More than 60 students have won state awards since this competition started in 2008.
Prior to the awards assembly, the students will tour the Arkansas State Capitol and take a trolley tour around the city.