Juried competition offers high school artists awards and recognition

Local high-school artists will get a shot at cash prizes and a college scholarship when the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum hosts its Tenth Annual Horry/Georgetown High Schools Juried Fine Art Exhibition.

The exhibition opens Friday, March 27, with a reception from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. with awards presentations beginning at 5:30. The reception is free and open to the public. Student works selected for recognition will remain on exhibit through April 22.

According to a news release from the museum, this annual two-county juried exhibition provides area students an opportunity to submit their works to professional judges for possible exhibition in the Art Museum. Additionally, the show promotes high-school-student art and achievement while demonstrating to student artists how they can earn money through their art. 

Exhibition works are judged, and cash awards are given for Best in Show, for first, second and third place in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works, plus six Honorable Mentions. The top award is the First Federal Scholarship Award, which provides tuition assistance for four years of higher education in the arts for the winning digital portfolio.

Schools participating are Aynor High School, Carolina Forest High School, Conway High School, Georgetown High School, Green Sea Floyd High School, Loris High School, Lowcountry Day School, Myrtle Beach High School, Myrtle Beach Academy for the Arts, Science & Technology, North Myrtle Beach High School, St. James High School and Socastee High School.

More than 350 pieces were submitted for consideration in this year’s event; 78 will be displayed at the Museum after the competition has concluded. Two jurors select the works to be honored, and a sole judge determines the prizes to be awarded them.

This year’s judge is artist Jonathan Green, a beloved South Carolina native son and the preeminent artist of the Lowcountry’s Gullah culture. His work has appeared in two exhibits at the Museum: last year in Jonathan Green: The Artist & The Collector, and 2003’s Southern Images of Faith, Family and Friends. 
Jurors are Danny McLaughlin, whose oil and acrylic paintings have been commissioned by celebrities and whose prints have hung in the Library of Congress; and Kathy Olivia Smith, an award-winning painter and sculptor whose works have been exhibited at the Art Museum and at Brookgreen Gardens.

Also on display at the Museum through March 29 is Tools in Motion: Works from the Hechinger Collection. Admission to the Museum is free at all times, but donations are welcome.

For more information, call 843-238-2510 or visit http://www.myrtlebeachartmuseum.org.

Freedom: Candace Griggs’ (Academy for the Arts, Science and Technology) mosaic-inlaid table titled Freedom from Incarceration took second place in 3-dimensional works in 2008.