The Bradbury Art Museum (BAM) hosted its annual reception for local students selected to be in the “Inspired 11” exhibition this Thursday. 

“Inspired” is a yearly, competitive exhibition offered to regional high school students in ninth through 12th grade. The exhibition allows these students to experiment and present their own art to the community. 

Dana Bruff, a high school art teacher at Valley View School District, said “Inspired” is a valuable opportunity for students.

“What they learn is the talent that we have like in our community and in other high schools, and we do it every year just for them to be able to be exposed to how amazing other high schools are at art, how good other students their age are at art, and be inspired by that to go out of the box and create even more cool stuff every year,” Bruff said.

The road to being featured in the “Inspired” exhibition is a lengthy one. Students first visit the Bradbury Art Museum as a school tour to see current exhibitions and choose artworks to influence their work. This year’s professional exhibitions included “Stil/Leven, Still/Even,” “Taking Up Space,” and “Echoes of Silent Migration.” 

After their visit, students spent a few weeks creating their own artwork based on what they saw on their tour. They could copy color schemes, art styles, techniques, or just imagery that they liked. When they finished, the works were submitted to BAM for judging.

Ashlynn Monroe, a senior from Walnut Ridge High School and winner of the Art and Design Department’s Emerging Artist Award, said she loved the “Inspired” process.

“Coming to the museum was a little shocking at first. I’ve never been to an art museum before and it was fun having so much freedom with this, because I could pick anything and do whatever I wanted with it. So that was really nice,” Monroe said. “It gives a lot of other students in high school like me an opportunity to get out there with our art.” 

The submitted pieces were judged by BAM employees and Somayeh Faal, an artist whose work is currently displayed in the museum. This year, Abigail Loggins from Bay High School won first place, McKenna Shipman won second place, and Jessie Dale won third.

Other students were selected for a variety of recognitions, including the Excellency in Drawing Award, Juror and BAM Staff Merit Awards and the aforementioned Art + Design Department’s Emerging Artist Award. 

Madeline McMahan, interim museum director and curator, said she hopes the event leaves a lasting impact on students.

“I hope that they learn to be okay with taking the risk of applying for things, because being an artist, there’s a lot of rejection involved, and you have to learn that it’s not an indictment of you as a person or an artist when you get rejected,” McMahan said. “So I hope that that’s always the takeaway, especially for those who don’t always get in—that they’re less afraid going forward.” 

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