Show features art from 11 schools, including Elk River, Zimmerman, Rogers
Through Feb. 26, North Hennepin Community College is hosting its 16th annual Northwestern High School Art Show in which artists from local high schools will be featured in the college’s Fine Arts Department’s Joseph Gazzuolo Fine Arts Gallery. The show is curated by Leslie McDougall. The Joseph Gazzuolo Fine Arts Gallery is open for viewing 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. The college is located at 7411 85th Ave. N., Brooklyn Park.
The 11 high schools participating in the event are Park Center, Robbinsdale Armstrong, Robbinsdale Cooper, Maple Grove, Osseo, Champlin Park, Rogers, St. Michael-Albertville, Irondale, Elk River and Zimmerman.
Up to 10 students from each school could submit artwork for the exhibition, according to Kathy Hendrickson, NHCC’s interim director of community impact. A total of 95 pieces will be featured in this year’s exhibit.
“We love seeing area schools so beautifully represented in this year’s exhibit. The talent behind the artworks offer an exciting glimpse into the individual creativity of the next generation. We intend to help these young artists reach a larger audience through participation in a college exhibition,” said Leslie McDougall, graphic design faculty and director of the Joseph Gazzuolo Art Gallery.
According to Hendrickson, NHCC’s art faculty will select one student from each school for the Artistic Merit Award.
Faculty aren’t the only ones who can cast a vote. Visitors to the gallery can also vote for a People’s Choice Award up until 12 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 23. The Artistic Merit Awards will be announced 6:30 p.m. Feb. 26.
The single winner of the People’s Choice Award gets a unique prize; the winning piece will be featured in promotional materials for the next Northwestern High School Art Show.
According to Hendrickson, 2023’s show had over 1,000 visitors throughout the course of the exhibition and award show.
“It’s a pretty big draw for the community and for North Hennepin Community College,” Hendrickson said. “This is one of our most successful shows of the year. Being the director of community impact, it’s just such a wonderful event to have the community come in and just really be active in the college.”
Hendrickson said that many of the artists featured in the exhibition end up coming to North Hennepin Community College.
“It’s an unofficial recruiter for us, but we don’t do it for that,” Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson believes the exhibition offers a great opportunity to provide young artists with public exposure, but also provides the community with artistic insight from its youth.
“This is actually a gallery show and so they’re in our gallery,” Hendrickson said. “I think some of these artists are phenomenal. I don’t know if I can teach them anything or if we can teach them anything. I think they’re teaching us. We’re being gifted with this insight of our young people.”
Over the years, Hendrickson has seen the perspectives of local youth change through artistic visions presented in the gallery.
“Just thinking back to the last several years, there’s been so much change,” Hendrickson said. “We did it virtually during COVID and there’s so much that can be said through art about topics that we don’t necessarily have the platform and/or courage to talk about. Talking about the isolation and the depression, the fears that a lot of these people have about climate change. There was a lot about isolation. And that was just coming out of the lockdown from the COVID pandemic. It really allows us to see the narrative that’s going on inside.”
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