BROKEN BOW–Thousands of works of art were on display this past week for the Mid-Nebraska Activities Conference (MNAC) Art Competition. Sixteen area schools competed in Broken Bow for the annual show, in conjunction with the MNAC basketball tournament.
Each school is allowed five entries in 14 different categories, in both high school and junior high. This year’s art competition chair and Litchfield art teacher Allison Varah said the competition helps inspire students who want to pursue a future in art. In addition, lifetime memories are created for students who receive formal art critiques from the professionals.
“We did have four Concordia judges come out and they’re the art professors for Concordia University and they came out and they just did a wonderful critique for the kids and any art teachers who were there and really encouraged them, they thought it was a really high quality show and encouraged them to just stay on it and that there are many, many careers that kids could follow if they were inspired in their visual art area so that was awesome to hear,” Varah said.
Categories included printmaking, pottery, drawing, sculpture, photography, painting, and much more. Local students said it is meaningful for them to see other people be inspired by their work and know these skills will be helpful in wherever life leads them.
“I know a lot of people in our school like taking art classes because of our teacher Mrs. Moony. She has us do a lot of kind of different activities, we do a lot of studying about different artists and then try to put what we learn into our artwork so I really enjoy that,”said Margaret Safarik, a senior at Hyannis High School.
“I really like seeing everyone’s art and seeing how other schools do different things. And I think it’s cool how other people can see our art and maybe get ideas for their own,” said Hope Brosius, a freshman at Hyannis High School.
Mullen K-12 art teacher Kyle Hoyt said he expects a lot out of his students and that the MNAC art show acts as host to some of the best artists in central to western Nebraska as far as junior high and high school goes.
“At Mullen I’ve been really lucky to have a really good group of kids. We have a really supportive school as far as the art program goes and a really supportive community and the parents expect a lot but they also teach kids the value of art,” Hoyt said.
This is the first year the Wild Rose Gallery in Broken Bow joined forces with the MNAC competition. A special exhibit will showcase the top pieces from February 12 through March 3.
“It will be kind of a real high quality 16-piece show that will have the first from every category and then the best of show overall and the runner up, so it will be a very good representation of the quality work that the small schools are doing around here,” Varah said.
Schools: Anslemo-Merna Ansley Arnold Arthur County Brady Callaway Cody-Kilgore Hyannis Litchfield Loup County McPherson Co. Mullen Sandhills Sargent Stapleton Thedford Categories: Acrylic/Oil Watercolor Pencil Color Drawings Mixed Media Black and White Photography Printmaking Hand Built Ceramics Thrown Ceramics 3-D Sculpture Textile Computer Generated Miscellaneous
