By Lori Nagel
The Moffat School gymnasium transformed into an Art Gallery the last weekend of March for the Southern Peaks League Art Show on Saturday, March 30. Its shiny wooden floors were filled with the artwork of Middle School (MS) and High School (HS) students from eleven schools across the valley. Moffat’s art teacher, Rachel Kellum, coordinated the effort. Staff, students and valley-wide art teachers assisted in the preparation, set-up and breakdown of the show, for which Kellum said she was truly grateful.
The judging was anonymous (student names/schools were not visible), and performed by artists, Noah Baen and Allison Wonderland. “It has been an interesting experience for our students to reflect on the aesthetic choices made by our highly esteemed judges who are practicing artists themselves,” Kellum stated.
The judged categories included: Watercolor Painting, Acrylic Painting, Stop Motion Animation, Linocut Printmaking, Digital Drawing, Colored Pencil Drawing, Mixed Media/Collage, Ceramics Sculpture, Hand Built Pottery and Wheel Thrown Pottery. The ten other participating schools in the Southern Peaks League were: Crestone Charter, Mountain Valley, Sargent, Creede, Sangre de Cristo, Centennial, Sierra Grande, Monte Vista, Sanford, and Ortega Middle School.
For the Audience Favorite award, many dozens of votes were cast by attendees, who were asked to choose one selection from MS, HS Beginner and HS Advanced entries.
Those 3 awards spanned across all of the judged categories.
“I am so proud of the skill, talent and dedication our artists brought to their art making this year,” Kellum exclaimed in an email to Moffat families. Moffat students brought home 25 ribbons, an excellent showing for their small school. Their awards included: One Judge’s Choice – Best of Show (Kaidence Alwin – HS Beginner), One Audience Favorite (Ziggy Eilets – MS), 10 First Places, six Second Places, three Third Places and four Honorable Mentions.
“Finally, I’d like to thank the students, families, staff and community members who came to see the exhibition and voted for the Audience Favorite Award. What a blast!” Kellum concluded.