NAFCS Secondary Art Show on display at Carnegie

May 2—NEW ALBANY — For New Albany-Floyd County students, an annual exhibition is an opportunity to showcase their artistic talents not just within their art classrooms, but also in a public venue.

The Carnegie Center for Art and History in New Albany is presenting the NAFCS Secondary Art Show and Competition through May 7. The show features the work of student artists in grades 5-12 from each middle and high school in the district.

The opening reception for the show took place April 21, and the award ceremony will take place Wednesday, May 4, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the New Albany High School Auditorium.

The exhibition consists of work created in NAFCS visual arts classes, and more than 200 pieces are selected by art teachers for the juried art show. The works are judged first by the teachers, and then by a panel of professional artists and art educators.

The show features six best of show awards, and the Carnegie also presents its own merit awards.

Monica Schotter, art teacher at New Albany High School, is the chair of the show. It is like the "arts Superbowl" for NAFCS, she said.

"This is the big local thing that we do to honor our students and showcase their hard work throughout the entire year, and just to have a venue like the Carnegie Center is phenomenal. A lot of other school corporations don't have this type of venue, and they do their shows in like a cafeteria or a gymnasium. For us to have an actual gallery space to do our show is, I think, pretty special."

The show was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, and last year's featured virtual programming and judging, so she is excited about the full return of the art show.

"I think just being able to have the show, and just the quality of work the students have produced this year is really outstanding considering what they dealt with the past two years," she said. "It's really breathtaking when you think of what they have dealt with — to produce what they have here is just amazing."

A variety of art styles are featured in the exhibition, including drawing, painting, sculpture, design, mixed media, printmaking, ceramics, fiber art, photography and digital imagery.

Ana Anderson, a freshman at Floyd Central High School, created a comic focused on the theme of "burnout." She is one of the best of show winners featured at the show.

"The name pretty much explains itself — it's like when people say they are kind of burned out, they like went through their fuse and they're exhausted," she said. "I was really inspired by my own feelings and my brother's, who at the time was kind of going through a rough patch in college."

Anderson said it feels "really nice" for her work to be named best of show.

"I feel honored, in a way, because there are so many people out here who have such good pieces, and mine's up here," she said. "I feel proud."

Avery Decker, a junior at New Albany High School, won a best of show for her self-portrait, which is a drawing showing her wearing a mask pulled down over her face. It was a "big shock" to be named best of show, she said.

"It's a hard category, so I feel really proud of it," she said.

The portrait was based on a photo of Decker taken during the pandemic. She has enjoyed creating art since elementary school, and she wanted to try something new as an artist.

"This is my first self-portrait," Decker said. "I really wanted to go into it, because I've done portraits for other people before, but not of myself."

This year's show not only features the work of students, but for the first time, it also includes work by NAFCS middle and high school teachers. A selection of work from the local art teachers is on display in the Sally Newkirk Gallery.

Schotter said the teacher show came together "really last minute" as they learned the gallery was available at the Carnegie, and almost every art teacher participated in the show. She has several of her own pieces in the exhibition, including a couple of pieces showing her skills in costume design.

"I think it's great — the kids really enjoyed seeing what we do as artists as well," she said. "We're going to try to make it a yearly thing, hopefully."

Julie Leidner, exhibition development and education leader at the Carnegie, said the secondary art show reflects "things going on in our community and our world."

"In the last couple years, there were a few works that really addressed the emotional impact of the pandemic, and that has continued to a couple pieces in this show that are really powerful," she said. "I think this exhibit does a great job of showing not just the creativity, but the resilience of students in our public schools here in Floyd County."

Leidner said while the Carnegie values "national and regional art, we also value the art by our local community, including our students." She started her career as an artist, and she never had the opportunity to show her work in a professional exhibition space in high school or middle school.

"For these students to have the opportunity to see their work in this beautiful building and to be able to put that on their resume if they want to or share their work with their family in a public way — I think that's really special, and I think it would have been special to me," she said. "I think it's a very memorable thing for a lot of the students, and it's one of the reasons why we love to continue the tradition of having this show."

Student artists from Southern Indiana elementary schools have also had their work on display in public spaces this spring. The NAFCS Elementary Art Show recently wrapped up at the Floyd County Library, and in April, the NoCo Arts Center and Jeffersonville presented the Greater Clark Elementary Art Show in late April.

Although the full Greater Clark art show is no longer on display in the NoCo Arts Center, Jeffersonville Public Art Administrator Emily Dippie notes that a selection of pieces can still be seen at the NoCo Digital Gallery outside the arts center, and the digital display should remain up until about mid-May. The recent show featured work from students in each Greater Clark elementary school.

"It's really incredible to see the skills and talents represented all across the district," Dippie said.