Mullen Public Schools hosted their annual Art Show earlier this month which included entries from junior high and high school students from a number of schools including Burwell, Mullen, Paxton, Sandhills, Arnold, Stapleton, Wallace, Arthur, Valentine, Gothenburg, North Platte St. Patrick’s, Ainsworth, North Platte High, and Broken Bow.
Individual awards were given to the top ten entries in each division, where the individual scores were then totaled toward a top artist and team score.
In the Junior High Division, Mullen students dominated in the individual scores and team scores. All three top artist awards were presented to Mullen students including Izzy Hoyt who received Top Artist 1st Place (25 points), Alex Werner finished Top Artist 2nd Place (19 points), and Justin French was awarded Top Artist 3rd Place (16 points). In the team race, Mullen put together 246 total points from 113 entries easily taking 1st place. Finishing in 2nd place was Sandhills (74 points), and ending up 3rd place was Broken Bow (27 points).
As a team, Mullen also was the top finisher at the high school level ending with 107 points on 52 entries. Finishing in 2nd place was Sandhills with 70 points and wrapping up the top three was Broken Bow with 64 points.
Individually, Mariam Ganoung of Sandhills was awarded Top Artist 1st Place (26 points), Felicia Sommer of Broken Bow received Top Artist 2nd Place (20 points), and finishing as Top Artist 3rd Place was Becca Smith of Sandhills (16 points).
A total of 411 entries were submitted to the art show at the junior high and high school levels in a number of categories including 3D, Computer Graphic, Textiles, Photography, Water Color, Black and White, and others.
In his 13th year as the Art Teacher for Mullen Public Schools, Kyle Hoyt said the kids that are now in high school, he has been able to teach since they were in grade school. This has allowed him to develop his curriculum to best fit the students.
“I’ve kind of tried to build my curriculum to build on specific skills I want them to have by the time they get into high school and junior high,” said Hoyt.“I try to do as much as my art as I can just to show them what is possible, but they do a really good job. We break things down into steps, we make things achievable too. They have big goals and I have high expectations for them and so they know they are going to have to put in the work to do well in the class.”
Hoyt also said that while the goal is always to do well in art shows, everyone is going to view art differently and a student might do well in one art show, but not in another. He says he always tells his students if they put in the effort and make sure their projects are really well done, the results will speak for themselves.
Hoyt said, “That is what [the students] like to see if their work is good enough to do everywhere.”
Area art students will soon be back to competing at the Mid-Nebraska Activities Conference Art Show being held in Arnold on May 1.
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