Showcasing student art work brings more importance and pride to the student about their work. Having the students' work on display for the community makes the art work more important. I hear students at the end of each contest being inspired by what they saw and planning to work harder next year.
I teach in a low-income school in southwest Missouri which has about 200 students in the high school.
About 150 of those students take art each year, so we use a lot of supplies and have a lot of impressive art work by the end of the year. Most students are independent study which means they can choose to do whatever project they want in the art room as long as we have the supplies for it. This is usually a great way to keep kids motivated because they get to pick things that they are interested in and that they love. We participate in two contests a year, and have a Fine Arts Night concert and art show at the end of the year for parents and the community. The two contests that we participate in allow students to see some really amazing and creative art work by other students their own age, and it inspires them. They get ideas for the following year and make plans and goals to work harder or to try something new. Having their own work go to contest is a great motivator.
My Project
We will use the display panels when we host our large regional art contest and also our local conference art contest in the spring of each year. We also will use them for display throughout the year for art work, and for our Fine Arts Night art show at year's end. The panels are lightweight and easy to move around and can be used in the classroom to display examples or to hang work to dry.
In the past we have had work on display at local businesses, and these lightweight panels will make transporting and showing work easier.
Although the idea of having your art work in "contest" can sometimes be scary for students, I encourage them to do the best work they can to be eligible to compete at contest.
It holds them to a higher standard than just the say-so of one person--the teacher--and makes them strive to reach contest-level quality. Younger students see amazing and creative art work which inspires them to try harder next year, and gives them goals to work towards.
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